The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1894-11-24
FARMER AND PLANTER.
TRUCK FARMING.

Small Farms Near Cities Maybe Msd~
Source of Wealth.
The small farms near elite. and towns
may be made profitable by being de-
voted, In measure at least, to truck
FARMING. To attain to any marked
success in this line, however, reuuifes
atnoroughness not az essential in some
other branches Of farm husbandry. The
question of selling the products of the
truck farm after they have been raised
often requires more study than that of
growing them. There are generally
three ways by which these goods are
disposed of. The first is to sell the
goods direct at wholesale prices to the
green grocers, who make a business
OF distributing them. The second
method is to build up a regular trade
oy having permanent market stand
where customers will come. The third
and last way is to have a regular route
TO peootlc the goods to whoever cares
to buy them. The latter method takes
SO much time that it actually costs
more to sell the goods than to grow
Them. Very few progressive truck
farmers can afford to leave their farms
long enough to peddie out all of their
produce in this way. They may often
get more for the goods, but the ques-
tior is whether the additional sum will
pay for the extra time required.
The second method is superior to the
third, for a permanent stand in some
good city market means that good Gus
TONERS will in time come carly to the
place and the goods can be disposed of
before noon. In this way the farmer
can get back to his farm early in the
day ready for loading up again. Where
rent has to be paid for the stand, the
question of profit becomes more doubt
full. The disadvantages of this system
are also numerous. In order to get to
the stand early one must rise very early
In the morning and spend many hours in
the air during all sorts of weather. In
the fall of the year there will be con-
siderable exposure to the cold, so that
one actually runs the risk of injuring
his health. The wholesale method of
selling the market produce is employed
by the most of the progressive truck
farmers, and, on the whole, it seems
the most business like. The wholesale
manufacturers are willing to receive
less profit on their goods and to have
somebody else distribute them. In this
way they are relieved of details and
can devote all of their energies to their
one plant. The same reasons apply to
the market gardener.
He does not, as a rule, save by spend
ing of his time in peddling goods, but
some central, trustworthy distributing
point should be made SO that he can re-
lieve himself of all further care about
the goods. Wholesale dealers will sup
ply the trade with only a fair profit to
them. and this profit is legiti-
mately earned. The difference be-
tween the prices for the goods at
wholesale and retail is sometimes very
large-almost too large to make farm
crs believe that everything is honest.
But retail dealers have stablshed
their trade, and their prices do not
fuctuate so much as those of the whole
sale markets. If any produce declines
in value it is several days after before
the retail markets show any signs of
it, and if the decline is only of short
duration, the retail prices will not
change at all. The consumers are the
one that lose on one side by this, and
the cultivators of the soil at the other
side. The middlemen make the extra
profit, and generally the small retail
stores get the lions share, still, all
things considered, it pays most truck
gardeners better to deal with the
wholesale houses rather than to at
tempt to peddle their goods around, or
to make separate bargains with the
retail stores. American Cultivator.