168 MAKKET GARDEKTN^G. 



nies or from commission men. The companies care little 

 for his individual interest, and the commission men, if 

 doing a business of any volume, have no time to look to 

 special cases, but endeavor to deal equally with all who 

 look to them as agents. 



Early Shipments. — Early shipments are always 

 profitable when the fruit or vegetable is properly devel- 

 oped, but quality should be aimed at by the grower, 

 rather than eai-ly, large, or extensive shipments. As an 

 examj^le of the evil effects to produce quantity at the 

 expense of quality, notice the result of the introduction 

 of the Kolb Gem watermelon, an early, reliable sort, a 

 good shipper, showy outwardly, but in quality only third 

 class, so poor in texture and flavor that the consumption 

 of early watermelons by people of discrimination has 

 fallen off to over one-half, because it is impossible to 

 obtain anything but a miserable Kolb Gem until Northern 

 grown watermelons come into the market. 



Quality Most Important — Quality should never 

 be sacrificed to quantity, either in the production of enor- 

 mous yields to the acre or in the production of monstrous 

 specimens, as so often is the case in cabbage and cucum- 

 bers. 



Market Quotations. — Truckers to be successful 

 salesmen should be subscribers to one or more of Produce 

 Journals, that they may familiarize themselves with the 

 wants and conditions of the various markets, sending 

 their products where they are most likely to bring the 

 best prices. Supplies and prices, however, vary in noth- 

 ing so much as in fruits and vegetables. Cities like 

 Philadelphia, New York, or Boston, may take at a good 

 price a thousand crates of cucumbers in one day, and the 

 next day decline them at any price. 



Freight Cars. — However cautious the shipper may 

 be, his care and labor is defeated if the railway com- 

 panies do not furnish freight cars of such design as to 



