MARKETING SMALL FRUITS. 155 



an annoyanco, certainly. What they want is a piece of land, 

 anywhere from five to six acres, with covered sheds, so that a 

 man can drive under the sheds, and stay there until he sells his 

 fruit and vegetables, or anything he has to sell. Give him a 

 chance to sell them at wholesale or retail, and give him a chance 

 to stay under shelter, so that in case of a storm he shall not be 

 forced to give his tilings away. For instance, grapes, of which 

 I sell a number of tons. Last year I found I could do better 

 than to have those sold on commission. But strawberries and 

 asparagus, I do not know how you can sell them in any other 

 way than by commission. In my vicinity, we are growing large 

 amounts of these things. Tiiere were days last year when there 

 were two hundred crates of strawberries sent from that station 

 at Concord, to Boston market. That means sixty-four hundred 

 quarts. That is a large amount to sell, and going in these 

 ventilated crates, it is rather necessary to sell them by the crate. 

 Then it is necessary for the producers, that those men who sell 

 the strawberries should duplicate the crates, and send them back 

 other crates as soon as they receive theirs, because, as many of 

 these strawberries are shipped down to Portland, the British 

 Provinces, and to great distances, the farmers who raise them 

 cannot afford to find the crates, because they would not 

 get the use of them more than twice a year ; therefore, those 

 men who sell them, and have ten per cent, commission, have to 

 furnish something beside the selling. I presume Sands, Furber 

 & Co. have two thousand dollars' worth of crates, which are 

 necessary for them, in order to do their business. 



I am not at all surprised at the statement made by Mr. Davis 

 in regard to a provision dealer in Boston proposing to buy 

 strawberries at ten cents a quart, when he was selling them at 

 forty. Perhaps you are not all aware that there is a difference 

 in the price of strawberries. Nice, handsome fruit may be 

 worth forty cents a box, when some other isn't worth twenty ; 

 no good strawberries were sold last year for ten cents a box. 

 Some strawberries went from our town that were not fit to send 

 to market. A man has no business to send strawberries to 

 market in such shape, and expect to get much for them. There 

 were times when some crates of strawberries, very large and 

 handsome, were worth forty cents a quart, and other straw- 

 berries standing right by the side of them were not worth over 



