234 Commercial Gardening 



Some employers are very lax in this respect with their salesmen. Instead 

 of checking and settling up each day, they leave this important matter 

 till the end of the week, when there is probably insufficient time to attend 

 to matters properly. The salesman very often, instead of paying up the 

 cash actually received day by day, averages the prices obtained during 

 the week, and pays in on that basis. This is one of the most ludicrous 

 and unbusinesslike arrangements any employer could permit. It is a 

 direct encouragement to pilfering and robbery, and, in not a few cases, 

 those who have been foolish enough to allow such a system to prevail 

 have found themselves in the unpleasant predicament of being much 

 worse off financially than their own salesmen. The "average" system 

 once a week for market takings is not in the interests of the employer. 

 It is not unnatural that the lowest prices will be taken each day, and the 

 average of these is what an unscrupulous salesman would unblushingly 

 hand over to his employer. 



The market book is of the utmost value to the grower if carefully kept. 

 It shows what goods sell first and best if the items are recorded in rota- 

 tion, and it gives him a clue to the class of stuff which is mostly in 

 demand. Where these books have been kept for years, they are also of 

 interest to show the difference in prices ruling at one period and another, 

 and also the changes that have taken place in the class of produce sold 

 at the different epochs. 



Loose-leaf Books. Nowadays there are many kinds of loose-leaf 

 account books, and market growers who do not wish to carry a lot of 

 "dead" material about in their pockets would do well to invest in some 

 of the loose-leaf books. Pages that are already out of date may be taken 

 out from time to time and placed in a cover for reference if necessary, 

 and "refills" of fresh paper of the proper size are always obtainable. 

 This kind of pocket account book takes up but little space, and one need 

 not carry about day after day a book containing records twelve months 

 or more old. 



When fruits, plants and flowers, and vegetables are grown in sufficiently 

 large quantities for sale, it would be wise to keep a special market book 

 for each group. This will afterwards save trouble in analysing the 

 accounts. 



Analysis Book. Many growers never go beyond the. market sales- 

 book and the bank book; consequently they are unable to say whether 

 they are doing well or badly with any particular class of produce. To 

 avoid this it would be well to have a special book in which the sales of 

 the various crops could be analysed and kept distinct from each other; and 

 there should be a separate book for fruits, plants and flowers, and vege- 

 tables, if of sufficient importance. By having a week to each page, and 

 the main crops each with a separate column, it will be possible to enter 

 up the receipts in such a way that the totals can be seen at a glance. 

 The following is a suggested form of analysis book for fruits, plants and 

 flowers, and vegetables, each section being kept separate. 



