16 MARKET GARDEis'i:N"G. 



shipped iu ventilated one bushel baskets made for such 

 purposes. 



Potatoes usually reach the Northern markets from 

 the Soutli packed in second-hand flour barrels, but it is 

 questionable whether it would not pay to put them up, 

 especially those barely ripe enough to ship, in half bar- 

 rel or one bushel pea baskets, so as better to adapt the 

 quantity to family wants. But few private persons wish 

 to buy a whole barrel of rare-ripe potatoes, but many 

 families could consume a bushel before they would grow 

 stale, which immature ones are liable to do. Thus, with 

 smaller packages, a direct domestic market could be 

 formed for vast quantities, and not, as now, have the sale 

 confined to provision stores and other retail dealers, each 

 partv, through whose hands they pass, adding a profit 

 until they reach so high a price as to deter purchasers 

 from buying liberally. 



Pea baskets are gotten np of thin stuff, slatted op 

 all sides, to admit air. There are sometimes rims, or 

 projections, so as to obviate compact storage of the bas- 

 kets while in transportation, thus securing a sure circu- 

 lation of air. 



Large quantities of potatoes reached the Northern 

 market in former years from Ireland, put up in cylin- 

 drical wicker-work hampers, and they came in excellent 

 condition, and it is probable such hampers could be 

 made in the South very cheaply. Oranges and lemons 

 from Florida might also reach the North in the same 

 form, as there are thousands of families who would buy 

 a small hamper of fruit, who now purchase only a 

 dozen at a time. It is not simply the interest of the 

 producer to transport his crop in market, but to do so in 

 a form that will entice customers, by giving them the 

 least possible trouble and inconvenience when supplying 

 their wants. The writer is merely throwing out hints, 

 practical minds will work out the problems themselves. 



