352 Our Farming. 



little package of each from clerks. When through, he went to 

 the owner and told him what he had done, and that all would be 

 analyzed. The merchant replied : " Go ahead ; I am glad of it. 

 I know positively that every article we sell, but one, is pure, as 

 we do our own grinding, etc. There is one that we buy under a 

 written guarantee that it is pure. The machinery to make it 

 is too expensive for us to afford." Well, as he said, every single 

 article was pure, except that one. That was adulterated, and the 

 New York firm that furnished it had a bill to settle soon after, 

 and a large one. The same day the Commissioner took samples 

 at another store, and all, except one, were adulterated. I assure 

 you, I stand by the honest firm, and by honest dealing of this kind 

 they have become millionaires, too. It is such goods, friends, 

 that cost me so much less than poorer ones would at retail. 

 Second quality goods may be good enough for country trade, 

 but they do not go down with me. There is a great deal more 

 profit in them, of course. Particularly is this true of little things, 

 which we do not know much about, such as spices and extracts. 

 I can buy a pint bottle of pure extract of lemon, of a city whole- 

 sale dealer, much better than what is usually found in little 

 bottles at most country stores, as gold is better than silver, and, 

 what is strange, it will not cost one-half as much, either, that is, 

 per pint. This is no mere talk. We have the pint bottle in the 

 house, and we have bought the cheap (?) ones. Now, I am not 

 going to say anything against country merchants. With the 

 large class of cheap customers they have, like the man who hesi- 

 tated between two and three pounds of nails, and the amount of 

 losses from trusting out that they have to stand, and competition 

 with city- dealers, who sell such an immense quantity that they 

 can sell cheaper with all these points against them, they have to 

 manage most any way they can. I do not envy them. But I be- 

 lieve the time has come when the business farmer, who pays 

 cash, had better go where his money will bring him the most 

 and the best, and that, if he cannot get cash enough ahead to buy 

 in this way, he had better borrow it at six or eight per cent., in- 

 stead of paying twenty-five or more by buying in the old way, at 

 retail. Of course, all are not situated so as to buy as handily as 

 the writer ; but distance amounts to little. The freight from 

 Philadelphia to my place, on groceries, would not be enough 

 more than from Cleveland to make any difference. In fact, I can 

 buy sugar cheaper in Philadelphia, enotfgh to more than pay the 

 difference, in freight. 



I am a good deal of a specialist, and do not believe in one 

 man attempting to do everything, but merely writing a letter to 

 order something now and then does not violate this principle very 

 greatly, no more than to go to town and buy it. But there are 

 other things, besides groceries and provisions, that maybe bought 

 at wholesale to advantage. A large retail dealer in the city once 



