The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1885-10-10
Ghe faruer.
Grading Produce Before You Take
It to Market.

IL TO Market.
A few days ago we purchased lot Of
Redistribution apples of farmer. When
we take honey around town on our wagon,
we take along fruits and vegetables also,
more or less, and the Red Astrakhans were
nut on the wagon. We decided that we
should have to have Is cts. per peck, to
cover cost, and expense Of selling. The
sales we're slow, because customers were
deferred from buying by bruised, specked,
and gnarly specimens of fruit scattered all
through. Finally the boys stopped the
wagon, and picked out all the poor fruit,
and put it into basket by itself, showing
customers nothing but fair, smooth apples.
The lead was closed out at 20 cts. peck,
in a very short time. Now, how many
bad ones were left, do you suppose? In
grading they got about one peck OF bad
ones to five pecks of perfect fruit, and they
sold this bad peck for 10 cts. Do you see
the point2 Six pecks of apples brought
S1.10 after they were graded. Before
grading they offered six pecks of apples for
so cents, and could not get it; therefore it
would have been good economy to have
poured the bad apples out to the pigs,
rather than to have damaged and Kindred
the sale of the nice ones by having them
sprinkled through with bad ones. | was
4 little surprised when they told me about
it so asked my wife one day, when l
saw her pairing apples:
"Sue, how much would you give to have
apples that were all smooth, without any
specks, rotten spots, or 'crookedness' about
them-that is, provided you wanted them
to cut up for pies or sauce Z?
She replied promptly
"Why, ! would give twice as much
'Oh, mo- you couldn't give so much as
that, could your Are you not putting it a
little too strongly"
II am not putting it too strongly at all.
Where a woman's time is valuable, and
where she likes to have things nice, she
can well afford to give double the money to
get nice fair fruit
OF course, there are people who will
want the culIs at moderate price, and
such people should have the privilege OF
having them. Now, we have kept on
grading our fruit ever since that day, and
/ have been surprised again by hearing the
boys say they could not get rid of their
culls so long as they had nice fruit on the
wagon. There was hardly anybody who
wanted the culls at any price. While re-
lating the little story to friend, he men
toned the following:
He wanted to buy some corn, and a
farmer drove past his house with load
that he wanted 20 cts for; but there were
SO many nubbins and so much soft corn
mixed in with it that he decided not to
buy it. Shortly afterward he drove to
Akron five miles), and met the same
farmer who was trying to sell his corn.
He drove from place to place, but the soft
corn and nubbins frightened his customers,
and he could not get a purchaser. He
finally sold it to my friend (who offered
him 20 cts in the morning), for only 10
cents per bushel. They transferred it from
one wagon to the other; but while so doing
they sorted it, throwing the bad ears to the
back end of the wagon. After they got it
sorted man drove past who wanted to
buy corn and offered 25 cts. bushel for
the best. Now, then, how many bushels
of bad corn were in the back end of the
wagon? do not remember the figures,
but the result was something like this :
There were II bushels of good corn and 3
bushels of culls. The farmer sold the 20
bushels for So. My friend who bought
it was offered $4.26 for the sound corn
after he got it sorted, and had the culls to
take home besides. | have mentioned
this little story great many times and
every one verifes it.
Our friend Terry, of potato-book fame,
has several thousand bushels of potatoes,
not very large, on account of the deyasta-
ting blight that has swept over almost all
of Northern Ohio l suggested that he
sort them, and sell the small ones for what
he could get, and the nice ones at a good
price. He was afraid that it would not
work with the potatoes. When | got
home 1 asked my wife if she would give
double the money for good sized potatoes
in good shape, free from specks, crooked
ness, etc. She replied at once that she
would, gladly Now, do not know how
far it pays to carry this principle. Per-
haps my wife is little over particular, in
her readiness to pay good price for fruits
and vegetables that are just to her liking /;
but know there are lots of women folks
who are just like her.