Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-10-28

Washington four delivery automobiles
and two wagons are engaged from Z
in the morning until 10 at night Ia
parcel post delivery. Even on Sunday
perishable goods are rushed promptly
to their owners. A woman may order
some butter by mail in the evening.
The farmer receives her letter the next
morning and Immediately packs his
freshly churned product. 1t reaches
the city and is delivered to her before
10 o'clock that night. Never before
could a city housewife depend upon re-
ceiving her butter supply the day it
was churned.
x *
In order that the best possible
care may be taken of perishable
food prod
Perishable Goods ucts a large
Adequately Cared For. has been in
stalled in the new city post office
opened in Washington last month.
Goods marked perishable will be placed
in this as soon as they are taken from
the train. Several other city post Of
fees have now installed refrigerators,
as they are essential to a proper de-
velopment of a successful system OF
llldThtllIS ny Illdll. Inc TeSpOlSlDlillS
for prompt delivery and also for care
full handling are fixed upon the car
riers. II the directions for packing
as given by the post office are prop
erly complied with. no loss need be
expected in transportation. If a driver
is careless in placing packages i'll the
wagon. he is required to pay for any
damages done.
The farmers who build up a good
mail order business cannot be exorbl-
tant in their charges They must De
willing to split the difference with
their customers between the price the
middleman would pay for the products
and what the customer would pay II
he bought the goods at retail. me
margin is large enough to give the
farmer better price by parcel post
than he would get otherwise and the
consumer also profits. But farmers who
have been selling their eggs In the
country store for 20 cents d dozen IN
trade have been known to ask CITY
customers from 40 to SO cents a dozen
such rates.
The containers or carriers in whlcn
the products are shipped are important
to the success of marketing by mail
Cases in which from three to five dozen
eggs can be shipped may be purchased
for 10 cents and used for months win
proper handling. They are OF strongly
made cardboard with corrugated lining.
With a separate section lOI cdSh &c 81
and may be purchased at any paper
store, A customer sends such a case
to the farmer when she orders eggs;
The postage will he cents empty and
10 cents when holding three dozen eggs
for any distance within radius of a
hundred miles This adds Is cents to
the cost Of the eggs But, if they are
ordered at Is cents dozen, Whlch Is
the all-year price at which they are
listed by a number of farmers. she stlll
secures better eggs for 81 cents a
dozen than she could secure for 4o
cents in the city markets.
detailed report secured from all OF
the ten cities included in the initial
experiment of the Post Office Depart
ment in developing the use of the
parcel post by farmers has been so en-
couraging that large number of other
cities have now been added to the list.
These are scattered over all parts of the
country and in each some special con
dition will have to be considered. 1t
is believed that the large cities will
be most benefited by the system. so
that Cincinnati. Chicago. Philadelphia.
Brooklyn, New Orleans, Portland,
Seattle and Los Angeles are included in
the new list of cities in which special
campaign is being inaugurated. But
the parcel post system has already
made all the provisions necessary, so
that in any part of the country farm
products may be shipped by mail with
out further instructions.