Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1879-08-18
SgrirMtinral department.
BETTER GOODS.

With all the other changes Whlcn
have followed the hard times in the
world, and particularly in this country,
comes an almost universal demand for
better, for the best goods of every de-
scription, and consequent falling off in
the call for those of inferior quality.
There was time when anything would
sell; when buyers paid little regard to
the quality of their purchases and took
shoddy stuffs of all kind without ques-
ton. Then woolens made of waste,
cotton made of starch, leather made of
paper, and all sorts of cheats and frauds,
and authorizations raw and manufactured,
found ready market and made the for
tunes of those who dealt in them. But
all this is of by-gonc age. When the
dollars came harder and represented
more work and more study, those who
earned them began to demand. not only
that they should buy more goods, but
- =.
better ones, and this demand has grown
more and more Imperative until it has
ruined the shoddy business altogether,
and 'poor goods won't sell at any price"
This is the record, and the proyerb that
is piled mountain high IN the records Of
the bankrupt court. written in the books
of merchants and over the doors of man
uSuUturivo, and, IN facu, IN every pTace
where business is done.
Nor Is this fact confined to this coun-
try. We have forced our way into the
markets Of the old world and are build
ing up trade for our products there
simply because we offer better goods
than any foreign producers are able to
do. The Englishman, slow and conser-
vative as he is, has learned the lesson
that the best is the cheapest, and when
he goes out to buy he is mindful of it.
Now there isn't any necessity of call
ing the attention of manufacturers or
merchants to this, for they know and
appreciate it already. Some of them
have learned it, as we have said, by bit
ter experience in the hands of unsatisfed
creditors. and others have saved them
selves from bankruptcy by adapting
their business to it long ago. But we
believe there is need of suggesting to
some Of our farmers that their business
is subject to this same memorable law,
and that their only way to success now
is, in raising the character of their pro
ducts until they will rank as the best.
If there was ever time when thu
purchasing community was so careless
that it would pay to make poor buttel
and cheese, poor beef and mutton, ant
poor -four and meal, that time has gone
by. With prices as they are at presen
there is not great profit in raising
frst-class produce of any sort; but wha
profit is possible in farming comes anC
must come out Of the extra price which
the world is willing to pay for an extr;
article. A poor article will not sell a
all, and an article which will class onl,
as fair will sell only at price whicI
will not pay the cost of production.
This is as true of farm as of factor,
produce. 1t takes as much cream t
make pound Of poor butter as it doe
to make pound of gilt-edged: it re
quires as much land and labor to produc
bushel Of good potatoes as it does t
grow bushel of good ones: and SO on.
But it requires more judgment an
greater skill to do things well than t
do them poorly, and upon these the farm
er has got to rely for his profits. An
fool can farm in hit-or-miss way, bu
farming in this way brings only poe
stuff which will not sell. The crop
which command profitable prices are tn
fruits Of brain-work as much as Of mus
Gle, and the moral of this aspect of tn
situation is, more brains, better product
and more profits in farming.