Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1874-07-18
MARKETING EGGS,

manner in which he made a market for
his eggs, that we give it space here.
It contains the secret of success in mar
keting any class Of produce. Have
something good to sell, have it uni
formly and reliably good and get
reputation therefor and there is no dan
ger but one can sell at good prices all
he can produce. But here is the story:
My old hens laid plentifully during
July and August, and though the price
was not large there was good market
for all the eggs I could spare. l did
not care to hawk around anything l
had for sale, and I sought dealer who
had q good trade, and proposed to him
that he should take all the eggs l would
have.
cat what price do you propose to
sell?' he asked.
cat the market price" answered.
"Who's going to decide ?"
"Well both decide. l will have a
pass-book and enter in it the number
of dozen I send you. When you have
counted them you can add the price on
the book, and in that way there can be
no mistakes or misunderstanding"
Cali right" said he, "I'll do it."
81 would like to have you bear one
thing in mind" added, "and that is,
that guarantee you shall never find a
bad egg among these I send you. If
you will keep them separate and ever
find me wrong in this, 1 will give two
eggs for every bad one you find in my
baskets"
"Do you mean all that ?" he asked,
somewhat doubtingly.
Every word of it." I answered.
"All right; see that you do it, for I
shall warrant every egg"
The merchant must have told of our
bargain, for the next time I met our
neighbor, he refined up his horses as if
he had something important to commu-
nicate.
"Say, Timw he began, "gone into
the egg business on a big scale amt
your"
"Why. no; not on any larger scale
than good many others"
"But you warrant your eggs don't
you?" l saw the twinkle in his eye,
but was not going to back down.
EYES," I answered; I don't intend
to carry any but good eggs to the mar
ket."
"Jes' so! So heerd. Pears to me
you must have mighty sight of conf
dence in your hens"
"Not so much confidence in my hens
as in my care of the eggs"
"Jes' SO! It's as good as thread;
warranted 200 yards! Why don't you
put your name on each egg, Tim?"
II may. by-and-by."
"Jes' so! I don't see why you
shouldn't" And he drove on.
But after all I had not done so fool
ish q thing as you may think. My
twenty hens averaged fifteen eggs q
day, and made it rule to send the
eggs to market every third morning. I
used china nest eggs, 80 there was no
possibility of any egg being over three
days old. 1t was not long before the
merchant began to appreciate the fact
that here was constant supply of eggs
that he might depend upon as being all
right.
I carried basket of eggs to him one
morning, and, after he had taken them,
he said:
"Tim, supposing I should give you
one cent dozen more than the market
price, what effect would it have on
your"
"The best effect in the world" I an
swered.
"Well, it is just like this; when you
told me to warrant your eggs all sound,
thought you was . eonfounded fool.
But I warranted tho eggs and found
they were always good. Now I have a
class Of trade that would willingly pay
more for eggs if they could be sure they
were good. and I propose to ask two
cents . dozen more for the eggs you
bring me, and this I will divide with
YOU"
This was certainly encouraging, and
our arrangement holds to this day.
habitually receive one cent dozen more
for my eggs than my neighbors do. It
Is an insignificant sum, but it counts up
at the end Of year.