THE PRACTICAL COUNTRY GENTLEMAN 



perlences of a neighboring farmer who raised 

 strawberries which were large and of an es- 

 pecially fine flavor, but who persisted in refus- 

 ing to keep his beds well mulched, and to buy 

 new crates each season. The result of course 

 was that his fruit was sandy, his boxes discol- 

 ored, and consequently his fruit was graded as 

 second-class instead of first. Another farmer 

 could never resist the temptation to put a few 

 specked apples in his barrels. The commission 

 house to which he shipped the fruit, having 

 cautioned him several times to no purpose, 

 ended by giving him only two dollars and fifty 

 cents a barrel when properly picked and packed 

 apples were fetching four dollars a barrel. 



Establish a reputation, and you can demand 

 your own price. In New York, on Fifth Ave- 

 nue, perfect Oregon apples sell for twenty cents 

 each (or about fifteen dollars a bushel) in win- 

 ter, whereas the average farmer has to content 

 himself with three dollars a barrel (2^ bush- 

 els). The former are large, juicy, and perfect 

 in shape; the latter, though of good flavor, are 

 small and specked. 



12$ 



