ON TAKING PAINS 279 
and buy what you require with ready money. Credit, and especi- 
ally long credit, means higher prices. If possible have two millers 
or corn-chandlers to deal with. One may have something cheaper 
than the other ; besides the knowledge that you have two strings 
to your bow will make them compete with each other. Unless 
you have rat-proof bins for storage, do not buy big stocks. A 
shilling per quarter saved on grain will not avail you long against 
the depredations of the rat. 
Watch the market for sales. Do not send all your eggs to one 
buyer unless you are certain you are getting top prices. As a 
rule it is more profitable to sell your produce at the nearest town 
than to send it to a remote market. When eggs are scarce give 
your regular customers the first offer and do not insist on the 
highest price. It is better to get a penny per dozen extra when 
you have a hundred dozen per week than to get threepence extra 
when you have ten dozen per week. If you provide a slightly 
cheaper egg when prices are at the top your customers will 
remember you gratefully when the market price is low. Take 
pains to please your customers. A clean egg looks bigger than a 
dirty one, it sells better and it commands a higher price. Send 
out your eggs clean. One very small egg in a dozen looks ridicu- 
lous and does you no good. Take out the smallest and sell them 
for what they are worth. It is worth your while to remember 
this. Do not sell double-yolked or any abnormally large egg. 
It makes all the others look small when they are not. Keep the 
huge egg for domestic purposes. 
Eac Prices 
If in the height of the season when eggs are plentiful you have 
some for which you cannot get a fair market price put them in 
water-glass. You will be glad you did it in the gloomy months 
of November and December. Good water-glass eggs will fetch 
twice as much in Christmas week as new-laid will fetch in April, 
If you can market your eggs direct to the consumer you will save 
the profit of the middleman. It means more work, but it also means 
larger returns. Take pains to get the best prices. 
