288 - ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



vegetables curiied ou our wagons at the tiiiie. Kigbt after this 

 list come four columns for tbe various routes, headed, 1, 2, 3, 4. 

 The man ruuning each route puts down the day before the quantity 

 of each article of produce he thinks he can sell, so that looking down 

 his column you can at a glance tell of w^hat his load consisted. After 

 the day's gathering is done one man then divides the loads as 

 nearly as possible in accordance with the list, sometimes adding 

 and sometimes deducting from the given quantity, according to the 

 supply on hand, but alwaj^s marking the change on the original list, 

 so that this list shows every article on the wagons. The men are 

 required, in their wagon books, to specify sales, and it is then 

 easy, after the wagon's contents, if any, are checked off on its re- 

 turn from the route, to compare the sales in cash and account book 

 with the original list and find out just how much of each article 

 has been sold, and how much is unaccounted for and chargeable to 

 expenses, to carelessness or even to dishonesty. Even this leaves 

 some loopholes, but they are not of great seriousness. 



Where shipment by rail is necessary to find the market the gard- 

 ener should take example of larger business concerns who send out 

 traveling salemen, .Tud should himself go once a year to his pos- 

 sible shipping points and endeavor to get what might be called the 

 store trade. By doing this I have succeeded in establishing a trade 

 from the smallest Aillage to the largest cities in my reach, which 

 keeps me busy filling orders at fair prices and is worth some thou- 

 stnds of dollars annually in my total sales. Of course such trade 

 will not stand overcharging nor the shipment of inferior produce. 



Railroad facilities, of course, control this trade but then no 

 business man ought to establish a business in a locality where there 

 is no demand for his goods. In my case I can ship by freight peas 

 jticked before 11 A. M. and have them in the grocery stores for next 

 morning's trade. Or I can jjick strawberries by noon and have my 

 customers receive them by express by 4 P. M. in time for supper 

 trade, or ship at 7 P. M. for next morning. Yet I do not consider 

 my railroad and express facilities ideal. Some gardeners may have 

 better chances and a good many worse. 



In conclusion, I have tried in this short paper not only to warn 

 the novice by pointing out the laborious and arduous task before 

 him, for his work Avili require, so far as he is personally concerned, 

 not a nine or ten-hour day, but during the season, an eighteen or 

 tv/enty-hour day, but I have tried to give him some idea of the 

 cajntal required, and 1 hope that I have also been able to incorpor- 

 ate some suggestions of value to the older brothers of the fraternity 

 of market gardeners and small fruit growers. 



