262 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



November, 1912. 



Grading and Labelling Vegetables 



Paul Work, Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 



HAVINCi made the goods right by 

 good grading, we must make them 

 appear right by good packing. It 

 does not take any longer to lay a 

 specimen properly in place than it takes 

 to lay it out of place. Experience makes 

 experts at this, and a well finishel pack 

 costs hardly a shadow more than one 

 which shows a rough and uneven sur- 

 face. You are doubtless interested in 

 the cost of some of these things. For 

 three summers I worked on a vegetable 

 farm where a packing system had been 

 established, making use of the Diamond 

 market basket. Picking in the field cost 

 a cent a basket, piecework. Grading 

 and packing likewise cost a cent. Per- 

 haps a half cent should be added for 

 extra handling, making the cost from 

 the field to the market wagon two and 

 one-half cents a basket. During the 

 worst glut that this market ever knew, 

 an increase of one and one-half cents a 

 basket was realized over the prices re- 

 ceived by neighbors whose handling cost 

 was as heavy or heavier. Moreover, my 

 employer was moving five hundred bas- 

 kets a day when others could hardly 

 move any. 



LABEL TOTTB GOODS 

 Nothing adds more to the app)earance 

 of your goods than attractive and force- 

 ful labelling. I can best illustrate by 

 example. Mr. Green Grocer 'phones to 

 his commission house for a hamper of 

 lettuce. It comes and it proves to be 

 good. The packer had had good let- 

 tuce, and he has been careful, though 

 he makes but one grade of his crop. Mr. 

 Grocer wants more. Again he 'phones, 

 and gets a hamjier. This one looks jusl 

 like the other, bearing on the top merely 

 the address of the commission man and 

 a number for identification. But this 

 time he receives the produce of another 

 grower who makes three grades. This 

 basket contains the third. Next day 

 Mr. Grocer goes down town, calls on his 

 dealer, and sees the first grade from 

 this grower, packed in a box, and well 

 labelled. He sees his error and thence- 

 forward orders the distinctive mark at 

 an advance in price. This happens re- 

 peatedly with other grocers and growers. 

 The poor lettuce has spoiled the trade in 

 unmarked stuff, and all such passes for 

 culls, or nearly so. The man with the 

 label reaps the profit. What, then, is 

 the use in doing the thing right if we 

 do not bring the credit and the future 

 sales and the future profit to the proper 

 place? 



BENEFITS OF LABELLING 



California asparagus growers are suc- 

 cessful in this. Their beautiful bunches 

 are enclosed in attractive lithographed 

 wrappers, and they held the market in 

 our town last spring^ as well as in many 



others, though the price was high. 

 Another plan has brought splendid re- 

 turns to a New Jersey grower. He 

 knows how to judge a watermelon, and 

 takes advantage of that knowledge. 

 Every melon bears a paster, printed in 

 red, about an inch and a half by two 

 and a half inches in size, bearing a 

 guarantee of the quality. Just another 

 example. A western New York lettuce 

 grower declares on his label that it is 

 his aim to pack nothing but perfect pro- 

 duce under that mark, and he asks the 

 purchaser to report any imperfection to 

 him. If such a label will not inspire 

 confidence, nothing else will, and the 

 people that buy vegetables are very 

 different from those who buy other 

 things. As I waited for a train at a 

 small station last summer, I saw a neatly 

 lettered crate of celery. The grower's 

 name was there I did not know the 

 grower, but I sent for a package of his 

 product for use in an exhibition of mar- 

 keting methods. I was not disappoint- 

 ed. His name gave me the confidence 

 of which I have just spoken, because 

 not many care to use their name in con- 

 nection with low quality. This mark, 

 I have since learned, is proving a great 

 success in connection with a high-class 

 order trade. 



Thus we see that growers are learn- 

 ing the advantage of special marks and 

 labels, but the process is slow. The 

 shippers are in the lead. Many a box 

 of high quality produce bears the name 

 of the dealer, not the grower. The re- 

 putation is going to the wrong men. 



When taking up celery plants in the 

 fall leave the roots on and cut off a few 

 of the loose outside stocks and any that 

 may have got bruised or broken. — J. C. 

 Black, Truro, N.S. 



Mushroom Culture 



Will you please give me information rc- 

 Kardingr the raisinff of mushrooms for th( 

 winter in the cellar. ^ — Mrs. H. M'C. 



Mushrooms will grow anywhere when 

 given the proper materials. Dark, dry 

 cellars not bt-ing u.sed for anything else 

 are ideal places, as are spaces under ver- 

 andahs, or the prepared manure may Ix- 

 packed in boxes any size, so long as th<-y 

 are deep enough to hold eight or nine 

 inches of manure. Old bureau drawers 

 serve capitally for this purpose — in fact, 

 there is no limit to their cultivation in 

 places that may be convenient or that in- 

 genuity can suggest. 



To have certain success, procure if 

 possible, the daily manure and sweepings 

 from the stable, whatever quantity is 

 possible, forking out the long straw, if 

 any, and add a third of good garden .soil 

 to the manure, mixing it thoroughly, 

 turning daily to prevent it heating too 

 much, adding to the pile fresh manure 

 and soil as you procure them till you 

 have sufficient to make a bed four or 

 five feet in width as long as you have 

 space for it and when packed down to be 

 not less than eight inches in depth. 



MAKING THE BED 



After the first rank heat has escajDed, 

 make the bed by placing the manure in 

 layers, pounding it firmly. Pound it as 

 you would pound the soil in setting 

 posts ; the more compact your bed is the 

 longer it retains the heat, and the spawn 

 travels quicker through it. 



In locating your bed, do not put it on 

 a cold floor or where any water would be 

 apt to raise and be absorbed by the bed ; 

 in such a possibility raise your bed up 

 four or five inches, and if made against 

 a damp, cold wall, run some boards be- 

 tween . 



When your bed is made put a ther- 

 mometer in it and observe the tempera- 

 ture, which will raise to a greater or 

 lesser degree ; but when you notice it 

 going down and about ninety degrees, 



Harveiting: Onion* in the Grand Valley Garden*, Moo*e Jaw, Sask. 



The ooiona here shown yielded 300 bushels to the a«re, and sold for $1.50 to $2.00 a bushel. 

 fertilizer wa« used. The ^ro^er wa* Mr. Jas, Sla.t«r.' 



No 



