Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1913-12-12
MORE PROFITS FOR FARMERS
Greater Amount Of Money VIII 30
Made by Americans When They
Learn to Market Crops.

American farmers will secure great
er profits when they have learned
how to market their products to the
best advantage. They need in the
first place the widest possible diver
sity of crops and next a keener knowl-
edge of selling
The small inland city is the best
place for disposing of farm products.
Many sagacious farmers have private
customers for their hogs, chickens,
butter, eggs, etc. Where this is the
case much more than the wholesale
market price is obtained.
Those living within a few miles Of
thriving city can secure private
customers for fruit and vegetables.
as well as for butter, eggs and poul-
try. This is the most profitable way
OF marketing. The farmer gains the
middleman's profit and the customer
is pleased to obtain fresh products
without unreasonable trouble or ex-
pense.
II would seem incredible that there
are not enough vegetables raised In
some of the states for the interior
| markets, but such is the fact. Mer-
chants in all OF the little cities are
accustomed to ship in such products
as celery, onions, peas, beets. cabbage.
cucumbers, caulifowers and even po-
tatoes.
These are articles that pay enor-
mously compared to grain farming or
dairying. They involve little expense
or risk and their production serves to
| distribute the seasons labor evenly
and to make ii more profitable than
when II is confined to one or two prod
ucts. So long as city populations de-
velop at the ratio shown in the last
decade there will be no danger of
raising too much fruit or truck.
The producer in disposing of honey,
berries, -herries and other articles
which come in the line of fancy farm
ing gets twice as much by selling to
private customers as to commission
houses. 1t makes a lot of difference
whether a man with an orchard re.
ceives $125 or $3.50 a bushel for
cherries.
These figures fairly represent the
commission dealers price and the rate
paid by consumers. The wholesale
price of honey is IL to IA cents, but
private customers pay 20 to % cents
In butter, eggs and poultry this prin.
eiple applies with similar force. Near
ly every town housekeeper is GLAD
to contract by the year for regular
supplies of fresh produce. There il
profit on both sides in an arrangement
of this kind.
This argument for diversificatior
and business applies to both big anC
little farmers. 1t is unwise for LAND
owners to neglect fruit, vegetables
and the general run of what the!
call truck. There are liberal profit:
in these products IL they are handled
with skill and sold to advantage
When the farm is conducted so there
is a regular income from a variety o
little things it only takes ordinary
sense to give success either to a maj
or a woman.
II pays we'll to be able to furnish
in their season such articles as straw
berries, currants, cucumbers, cherries
apples, raspberries, sweet corn, cab
bage, honey and other products Of thu
: kind.
These pay ten times as much a
the grain crops. An acre Of cherries
or apples will net about $3.50 afte
; paying for the labor of picking an,
marketing. The others are equall
: profitable or nearly so.
The markets have never yet beel
over-supplied. In fact they seem t
be further from that condition toda
than ever before.