384 The Profitable Culture of Vegetables. 



or quantity may be deficient or grading badly done, whilst 

 " topping " with a layer or two of a superior sample to that 

 of the bulk is frequently resorted to. 



The third point of importance in connection with successful 

 marketing is to so arrange the crops that regular and continuous 

 supplies of a given product can be sent all through the season 

 when it is usually in demand. Here again the methods of the 

 home grower leave much to be desired, and where he makes 

 it easy for the foreigner to displace him in the estimation of the 

 buyer. A sound position in the market can never be established 

 if produce is sent in to a given salesman only by fits and starts. 

 Whether the grower be in a large or a small way whether the 

 consignment amounts to a hundred baskets at once or only half 

 a dozen every effort should be made to send them in with 

 regularity. It is very probable that the salesman would be 

 inclined to consider this as the most important point of all in 

 connection with successful marketing. He desires to know, as 

 nearly as he can, the kind and quantity of the produce he has 

 to deal with on any given day, so that he can make arrange- 

 ments accordingly. He has his regular customers just as 

 the shopkeeper himself has. In many cases some kinds of 

 produce on which reliance can be placed is sold in advance, 

 and never enters the market at all. If these customers buy 

 produce which suits their trade and finds a ready sale they 

 desire to continue dealing in it, and it must be very inconve- 

 nient and annoying to both salesman and customer to find the 

 supply of an article of which both approve suddenly cease in 

 the height of the season, or only come in erratically. When 

 this happens the price obtained is lower in consequence. Not 

 only that, but the salesman naturally places a higher value 

 upon a sender whose supplies he can rely upon, and takes 

 more interest in his consignments, with the result that he 

 usually does his utmost to realise the best prices so as to keep 

 the sender satisfied and so retain him as a regular client. 



Of course, when the grower is a beginner at the business he 

 very properly desires to feel his way, both with regard to the 

 crops he grows and the salesmen to whom he consigns them, but 

 this experimental period ought not to be too prolonged. In all 

 large markets there are many salesmen with a reputation for 



