The Plymouth Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1869-1941, 1870-12-01
Marketing Produce.

The most successful farmers and gar
deners adopt the axiom, that any article OF
produce, whether grain, fruit or vegetable
well prepared for market, is half sold. 1t
is one of the fine arts of farming and gar
dening to put produce up in the most at
tractive and useful condition. An excel
lent article Of wheat, mixed with chess,
cookie and straw, vii with great difficulty
find purchaser in market, then will be
knocked down to the lowest grade; but if
it had been properly cleaned would have
been taken at once at the highest figure
Corn is often taken to market unsorted,
with the expectation of realizing, by dint
of an INSCRIPTIONS deception, as much for
soft corn and nubbins as for sound, full
grown ears. SO with potatoes, turnips and
vegetables In putting up apples for mar
ket there has been more deception used
than in the marketing of any other article,
perhaps. The grossest and meanest cheat
ING that ever shocked the sense Of honest
people is every year seen by apple buyers.
There is less of il practiced In the sale of
other fruits for the reason that they are
not hid from sight. Confidence III up
rightness of farmers in general, has of late
years been greatly lessened by the practice
of which we are speaking.
There is nothing gained by these detest-
able practices On the contrary, there is Il
decided loss in every way. The chess and
cookie and small wheat are well worth all
it costs TO separate them from the grain,
for feeding to stock. So are small potatoes
and soft corn worth the sorting. They add
but little to the measurement, but they
greatly diminish the marketable value of
the good articles. The buyer has no use
e. H. 1,o Ia of
them.
John Knox gets fifty to seventy-live
cents quart for strawberries, but they are
not mixture of small and large, perfect
and imperfect berries They are carefully
assorted and put up in neat boXes-thc
largest, medium and smallest in separate
classes. In this way no one is cheated
Each one buys the grade he thinks best for
his means or purposes, and the transaction
is fair. If he chooses to give dollar for
quart of Strawberries, or twelve cents for
a quart he knows what he is buying and
is not cheated. SO Mr.. KnoX's fruit and
manner OF marketing is celebrated the
country over. This runs into the prepar
ing of all kinds of farm and garden pro-
duce.
1t is sometimes surprising to see, in the
markets of our large cities, how few there
are among the hucksters and truck dealers
who seem to know just how to prepare
their articles for sale There are always
Il few stands or wagons which are crowded
with customers, attracted by the excellence
of the vegetables or fruit, and the careful
manner in which they are put up, while
others, with equally as good articles, can
not get the eye of Il customer, because they
are not assorted, or are tllmbed in heller
skelter-applcs and potatoes and onions
and cucumbcrs and squashcs and bects and
carrots and corn and greens-altogcthe !;
and they stand there half day in the sun
and arc obliged to sell out at reduced
rate or return with them next day. There
is great need of reform i'll these things
and if it could be brought about everybody
would be bencfited-seller rs we'll as
buycr,-Dctr00 Tribune.