Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1892-02-23
SELLING FARM PRODUCE.
coon ARTICLE ArrRAcrryrL, rAcxrp
NECESSARY roR svccIss.

While u Il No snail task Tor farmers
to o,crcome their pr.judices and c,'-
operate In huying. u seems to bc q still
greater task Ia make satisfactory ar
engagements Tor selling farm produce.
Oue great difficulty !. the extreme. In
quality aud lack of Judgment on the
part Ot the producers of Que extreme Ia
rcgani To the real merit of the article Tor
sale. Many farmers are slow To believe
that their products are of a third rat.
quality. aud when they cell for q third
rate price they think there must be-
something wrong about the selling.
Again, there v . vide diversity Ia
.tyle of packages and manner ~ pack
Ing. \ firsi-clas. article poorly packed.
~ la an uniidy package never sells for =
iir-t class price. When ! was In CALI
fornla made some Inquiries In regard
Ia the profits of fruit growing, and
found that but comparatively few fruit
growers were making money out ~ their
fruit While some were getting large
profits. Upon Investigation II appeared
that the difispnCc b.t~.cn profit and
loss consisted wholly In the manner NJ
packing aud handling. The most profit
able consumers are very fa,tidiou, In
their tastes, aud the ordinary shop
lsboer will always take the neat looking
package 40 the same ar even q little
higher price Tor the same quality of
goods. 4 quick sale Il oitcntimcs of AZ
much advantage as = larger price.
Ihe average farmer nc,Sls more educa-
tion In this line ~ hls work. Boaris of
agriculture and farmers Institute. sadly
ncgleyt their duty by almost wholly lg-
nOring the question ~ how to market
the crop that l. raised on the average
farm away from the immediate vicinity
of q city Or large toNn. The difficulty
Of marketing a single crop to advantage,
aud what may H. accomplished by -ay
~ educating the producer, I. fairly w.
lustraied by the experience of the Yer
mont maple sugar exchange AZ brat'le-
boro. The flr.t two or thr-e year. of
It. existence Il rccciycC almos, as many
STYLES 20 packages 10 sugar aud syrup
from the sugar makers as thcr. we're
conslgnor. of the maple goods, aud the
quality VA. all the Nay from "black
strap" "a the flncst articlc that could he
made. Il did not take the manager.
long to learn that consumers dcmiuded
a uuiform package aud uniform quail
~ ~ goods Ia either ~ the grades and
a. everything sells On u. merits AZ the
sschange. producers soon learned that
there wAs a Wide difference between i've
cent sugar aud fifte-n cent sugar. They
also learned that II did not pay to put
up "short" gallons, nor send Ia the eN-
change syrup that Was c,.n one-halt
pound on the net gallon weight of
density. The result l. the quality has
greatly Improved. the packages sry
nearly all uniform, the syrup Il full
weight, IN. sales are quicker, hciicr
priccs are rcalr~d, aud beti.r ssii.-
faction !. given 10 both producer aud
consumer. The exchange !. nov sup
plying IT, con.iguors With packag-s,
.tf.iners, thsrmumeiers and other al-
pliauccs to improve the quality and in.
sure ~. uniformity of the msIlr
products ~ the state. What can b. ac-
compli.hci in one llne of farm product.
eau, In measure al icasi, b. done In
other lin.s II farmers will throw away
their pr,judic-.. have rcy"ptiNc minds,
and WORK togviher.-NcS England
Farmer.