Norwich bulletin., 1911-04-15
written Specially for The Bulletin )

tWrftten Specially for The Bulletin.)
 My New York paper prints, every once In q while. News of the Mar kets' article. Be it noted that the
 markets meant are the retail mar kets of New York city for the sale of household supplies to consumers by retailers These are very decidedly different from the ordinary market re- ports. which are often unintel1igible to an but the experts and are based up- on wholesale prices, paid by ~jobbers' and commission men" and "spectila- tors for similar goods in large lots. In last week Saturdays paper was such a report as l have referred to of tho retail prices charged consumers for various articles. Of course these prices were gathered on Friday. Two or three items in the lot were truly interesting and alternative.
 For instance, ~vfhits Isshorn eggs are 70 cents . dozen." This is what they were selling for Friday, in the uptown markets of New York.
 That very day I sold eleven dozen White Leghorn eggs" I haven't anything but pure white Leghorns in my little nock.-for IS cents a dozen, which was the fixed price among all the buyers in this particular town. and spotless. all of good size, with no little ones and no ma1formed ones.
 It costs less that two cents 8 dozen to transport eggs from my hen-house to New York city, in crate lots.
 From this it would appear that the uptown consumers of Gotham were paying IA cents q dozen for their eggs, and two cents a dozen for having them brought to the cftN and 20 cents a dozen 10 the retailer for waiting on if they wanted and insfsted upon white Leghorn esgs.- They could get fresh eggH' at from 24 to 30 cents a dossn. What tho miserable poultry farmer got for these last, srn not infszmed- Perhaps IS cents: perhaps less.
 [ read on. found thAt esg- plants were 20 cents each. and cucuinbers 15 cents apiece. and cabbages 12 cents a head Thess items didn't particularly interest me. for my egg-piants are still cucumesrs not yet sewn. Bwt,- ''parsn4ps are ten cents for six" This waa GetuRg nearer home. That same Friday when I sold my eggs I dug a mud of the upper go~den, washed them on at the pump, took some into the house. and sold some. Twenty cents c peck.
 never counted how many go into peck. But my customers, being
 
 about vegetables and some knowledge of ouality. won't take the big, over grown. rank stock parsnips which used to be raised. They want roots about an inch and a half or two inches in diameter and with tails less than yard Iong-a good del less. So I raise wholly haf-dwarf variety. which produces Ieas bushels to the acre, but is vastly better for table use; sweeter. tenderer. miider know that there are quite few in a peck. Es- pecially when you put lem in the meas ure in such a way that there is more parsnio than air-space In the thing: the way you'd like to have them put tn 1T you were buying. not selling. Certainly there were more than twelve, yes. more than twenty-four in that peck I sold.
 Again. the New York city consumer was paying more for being waited on than fer the actual substance of the goods he bought
 You'll say at once, Well. if this Mir Farmer knew that fffs white Leg horn eggs and his sweet young pars- nips were selling in New York city for more than twice what they were in Podunk Hollow, and if it cost so little for transporting them there. why didn't he send them there and get all the money that was ceming to him ?' Softly. please. Tn the first place, this particular farmer man didn't know what they were retailing for in New York cfty that FFfdny. He only knew what the buyers for the New York city markets were offering farmers. And they were offering IS cents a dozen for eggs and 20 cents a. peck for parsn8ps, as I've said.
 In the second place. he doesn't en- joy a large acauaintancs with con- sun,ers in New York city who want vhife Leshorn egys" and fresh pars- ntps. Even f heshad known what those consumers were paying. ho would not