Canning on the Farm 



1259 



he holds his goods rather high in market and the buyers 

 pass him by he can take the vegetables back home and can 

 them at a profit, while the other man who has no canner knows 

 that if he does not sell his goods on the market he will have to 

 dump them somewhere at a dead loss. The consequence is that 

 he takes about any price the purchasers care to offer him. 



The ownership of a home canner gives a man backbone when 

 he goes to market. In all transactions it is a principle well es- 

 tablished that one or the other sets the price. A willing buyer 

 makes a fair-priced article while an anxious seller reduces the 

 purchase price. In all lines but farming the seller sets his price 



Fig. 355. — Every One Becomes Useful in the Canning Season 



which will cover the cost of production, but when it comes to the 

 sale of farm produce many times it seems as though this rule 

 was reversed, for the price seems to be set by the dealer who says, 

 " I will give you so much." And because the producer has no 

 other place to sell, nine times out of ten he will take the price 

 that is offered, even though he may know it is below cost of pro- 

 duction. Then he will go back home to produce more goods at 

 the same low offering. This T believe is wrong. I believe that 

 every grower is entitled to a price that will cover cost of produc- 

 tion, and the home canner will help him obtain it. 



The possession of a home canner makes a home market that 

 will cover cost of production, and whenever the city market offers 



