CHAPTER FOURTEEN 



Selling the By-Product 



NO study of home-use farming would be com- 

 plete without a glance at the selling end of the 

 business. For while the money crop remains a by- 

 product it is nevertheless an important one; with- 

 out it a living-in-kind from the farm would cost 

 as much as any other living. 



We were well into our second year of home- 

 use farming before we began to have surpluses 

 for sale. Surplus has increased steadily, yet we 

 have never had any trouble disposing of it. The 

 difficulty, if any, in selling the produce of a home- 

 farm is that the quantity of any commodity for 

 sale is necessarily limited (it is one of the few fixed 

 rules that the household must never go short to 

 make a sale) so that no sooner is a customer started 

 than we may have to say "Sorry, but no more of 

 that." Yet this may be the very thing makes sell- 

 ing easy: regular customers accept the inconven- 

 ience of irregular supply because they can be sure 

 there is no hocus-pocus about it, no buying of 

 storage eggs or discouraged vegetables in Dock 



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