Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-04-13
(Tc be continued.
A Market Talk.

farmer STOOD IN the principal meal
and fruit market in great city, and a
market man who was explaining matters
to him dropped some sensible talk which
the Rural New Yorker reports: at has
ALWAYS seemed strange to me that you
gentlemen do not come here oftener and
look about. 1t would pay you to see what
other people are doing. You could see
how fruits and vegetables come in, and
what arrangement seems to suit customers
best. Such goods as yours have mighty
short life 1t pays to take special pains
with the appearance of such perishable ar,
tcles, can tell you. When you get a
few cents extra per pound, box or barrel,
you will find that it is generally paid for
those clean, neat, tasty in appearance
You must hit the eye of a customer. You
toss large and small, good and fair alto
gether in heap, and they don't look
we'll. Take onions or carrots, for instance,
Some punches are tight and shapely,
while others seem to be just thrown to-
gether; which do you suppose are left
over?
Then again, if there are fruits or veg
etables that can be sent to market week
in advance of the old sorts, farmers want
to have them. The early vegetable catch
es the early price every time. | have no
doubt you could pick out varieties of po-
tatoes here that are way ahead of those
YOU are planting. don't know anything
about farming; but do think could tell
YOU farmers something about your bust
ness, after all. You must aim to satisfy
the public and not yourselves entirely. If
the people want a certain kind of fruit,
prepared in certain way,it will be sharp
common sense for you to take the hint, land
not try to educate them up to your ideas.
The best classes of city people have, as a
rule, almost as much fruit as their cOun-
try cousins. 1t is always easy to procure
fruits and vegetables here at fair prices.
City tables are generally pretty well sup
Piled In the country fruit gets to be an
'old story where there is plenty of it,
and you will often find farmers who do
not raise enough to supply themselves.
Look at those pears there! Every one
wrapped up in paper as tenderly as or
anges might be- All that sort of thing
will be dropped when the great loads be-
gin to come in. 1t just shows how much
more money there is in the early lots of
| fruit There is large class ofcustomers that
always pick out the largest fruit they can
see. They will take the big strawberries,
blackberries and raspberries, and let the
smaller ones go. Perhaps they think they
are getting more for their money.
"Then, again, something odd in the
way of color, shape or packing, if not too
much out of the way. seems to attract at
tention. A great many farmers send live
poultry in here. Some arrangement for
supplying them with water ought 'to be
made. The poor birds sometimes come
in here just gasping for breath Such
treatment is not only cruel, but it INJURIES
the value of the birds. The ducks must
have plenty of water to drink, they need
lots of it. There is great waste in send
ing live chickens in the ordinary coop
sometimes they are huddled in together.
and when their food is thrown in theNare
sure to trample on it and iniure part of it.
Some shippers havea very simple arrange.
meut for a trough that works like charm.
Two small pieces of V-shaped wood are
fastened to the outside corners of the
coop. Two light pieces of board-one
next the lath and the other at the outside
of the V-shaped peces-from shallow
feeding trough. The chickens put their
heads out through the lath opening, and
cannot get at the food to trample on it,