90 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



ers more easily retained if there should be much competition at any time. 

 I will give my reasons for these conclusions. 



The producer and consumer, meeting daily, establish a friendly feeling 

 that will generally continue as long as the customer is honestly dealt with. 

 The latter's tastes can be more easily learned, and their supplies more 

 readily be selected to their satisfaction. Mistakes on your part, such as 

 selling damaged fruits or vegetables, can be more easily corrected, and 

 with a better feeling than if the complaints went through one or more 

 hands before coming to the grower. If a merchant handles the produce, 

 the sales are limited to a certain extent to his customers; but if the grower 

 undertakes to supply all the stores that may wish to handle such products, 

 it will be impossible to do so impartially and to their entire satisfaction. 



If you establish a successful business, some time or other there will be 

 competition. The customers are the merchants' customers and not yours, 

 and if some of those merchants should make arrangements to get their 

 supplies of others, the consumer buys them just the same, and you, who 

 have gone ahead and created the market, are robbed of the benefit. I 

 combine the two; and if anyone wants an extra supply, it can be had at 

 any time from the store. 



In starting in the business, try to obtain some of the best people in the 

 place. Tell them plainly your intentions and secure their consent for a 

 trial before the fruits and vegetables are ready to sell. By doing this, the 

 best consumers are secured from the first; and when the time for delivery 

 comes, a route is already established and the dread of peddling is removed. 

 Invite the customers to make criticism. The best customers may be hard 

 to please, but I have found them willing to pay well for what they want, 

 and supplying their wants will teach the grower to be particular and pains- 

 taking. These qualities should be early learned and always retained. 



My specialties have been small fruits, with a few vegetables that come 

 in the season of the fruits. The first that goes on the market are the 

 strawberries. I use the Hallock boxes and the sixteen-quart crate. They 

 are stamped with my name and are returned to me and are used over and 

 over as long as they look presentable, but are all destroyed at the end of 

 the season. Thus the cost of the packages is but slight, and the neat 

 appearance is retained. I aim to never let any inferior fruit go to market. 

 The sorting is done by the pickers in the patch, and they also face the 

 boxes on top — not with the largest berries, for they are generally too large 

 to let the next box above rest on the lower one without mashing them, but 

 with the medium-size berries placed with the hulls down. The object, is 

 to get each box uniformly full and add attractiveness. 



The tendency of pickers is to get a box about two thirds full and then 

 put a big handful in the center and leave it for a bone of contention and 

 trouble hereafter. Facing the box makes it a thing of beauty to the 

 picker; and to make all of his work look nicely, each box must be faced 

 just so. From being particular with the top, they are likely to be neat all 

 through the box. Most of my pickers have grown up in my strawberry 

 patch, and they require very little overseeing. Their pay averages about 

 two cents per quart. By this way I secure uniformity and my customers 

 always know what they are getting. 



I have always established my own price, and by the time the season is 

 fairly open I set my prices and stick to them. By doing this I can begin 

 to take orders for canning at once, and my customers know that, no mat- 

 ter when they take the berries for this purpose, the price will be the same. 



