46 BOAKD OP AGRICULTURE. 



loaded upon the wagon, and there was no further handling of 

 them. They were then covered with an old white sail cloth, and 

 in this condition taken to market. 



On backing up to the curb-stone about sunrise at Quincy Mar- 

 ket, a man with a snow white frock on inquired, "Have you 

 apples?" "Yes sir." "Let me look at them. What is the 

 price?" "So much for No. 1, and so much for No. 2." "I will 

 take them all," said he. " But," said B., " I cannot let you have 

 the barrels." " Why not? I will give you as many as I take." 

 " Because tliey fit my wagon, and are clean." "Very well ; then 

 you must help me take them out." B..did so, and on removing 

 them the purchaser found they were equally good in all parts of 

 the barrel. After paying for the load, the buyer asked, if he had 

 any more to sell. B. replied, "Yes, a similar load every other 

 morning during the month when the weather is favorable." "Back 

 up here," said the man in tlie white frock, "and you shall have 

 the market price for all you bring." B. sold the entii'e one hun- 

 dred and fifty barrels without waiting a moment for a customer. 



I theninquired of B. why his neighbor H. did not pursue the 

 same course that he had. "Ah, he did not know how," said B. 

 " He is not a member of the Farmers' Club, and of course did not 

 hear the discussion ' On the Preparation and Markeling of Fruits 

 and Vegetables ' last winter !" " What course did he take ?" I then 

 asked ? "Why, he used the first barrels that came to hand, long 

 and short, clean and dirty, flat hoops and round hoops ; filled them 

 with apples without grading ; threw a horse blanket over the bar- 

 rels, and trotted off to the 'Hub' to find a customer." B. did 

 not learn the process passed through in marketing, but only the 

 result as stated by H. himself, that he received $375 for his one 

 hundred and fifty barrels of apples. B.'s good nature would not 

 allow him to inform his neighbor that he had received $150 more 

 than that in the sale of the same number of apples, sold in the 

 same market in the same month, and the fruit of the same quality ! 



Here, then, was the sum of $150 lost on the sale of a single 

 article in the short space of thirty days — a sum more tlian equal 

 to all the money that some farmers in New England receive in the 

 whole course of the year — a sum that would make many a mother's 

 heart glad, if expended in schooling or clothing for children, com- 

 pleting an unfinished room and furnishing it with a lounge, a table 

 and an easy chair for sick and weary hours. How such a sum 

 would cheer the heart of some fair and dutiful daughter, could it 



