LESSSONS FROM THE WINNERS 263 



is low in price, vegetables are in some towns scarce and 

 high, and in the drier sections of the prairie states a 

 good garden appears almost an object of curiosity, 

 while prices are correspondingly high. Pacific coast 

 gardeners complain that Chinese competition keeps 

 prices down, yet some assert that Chinese gardeners 

 cannot compete with a garden worked with improved 

 implements. Highest prices were reported by garden- 

 ers located near mining settlements. Even in small 

 farming towns, where it might be supposed that most 

 people would have good gardens of their own, prize 

 gardeners often found a demand far in excess of what 

 they had to sell. 



Where no market was convenient, enterprising 

 gardeners brought one to the farm ; in other words, 

 they took summer boarders. Some who did not care 

 to take boarders sold vegetables to those who did. Still 

 another says : " I sold my garden truck mostly to 

 summer cottagers that were staying here, and so saved 

 all expense of teaming. It was a great pleasure to 

 them, as they rould watch the garden from start to 

 finish." These '' cottagers " are people who come to 

 the country to live in camp style for the summer and 

 are willing to pay city prices for the best vegetables 

 and fruit. 



In some cases produce was sold to peddlers who 

 came to the farm or garden and paid wholesale prices, 

 gathering the produce themselves. The surplus of 

 small city gardens was often eagerly bought by neigh- 

 bors glad of a chance to secure produce fresh from 

 the soil. But by far the most common method of dis- 

 posal was to team the tnick to the nearest town or city, 

 either selling it to storekeepers or peddling from house 

 to house. Those who had retail routes of this kind 

 usually found them very profitable. In computing the 

 wholesale price, they charged off from ten to thirty 



