302 



THE GARDEN AND FIELD. 



December, 1913 



Distribution of Fruit and 

 Vsgetables. 



Adelaide is probably more richly 

 blessed than most cities; at all events 

 tliere must be few which can within a 

 ton-mile radius produce such a varied 

 assortment of fruit and vegetables of 

 such excellent quality. Our fruit shows 

 are no doubt equal to anything exhibited 

 in any part of the world. So far, then, 

 we have every reason to congratulate 

 ourselves. So far, and no further. It 

 is not too much to say that, when this 

 luscious fruit and excellent vegetable 

 leave the orchard and garden, we lose 

 points to a tenth rate provincial English 

 town, and are simply not in it compared 

 to an American or European city of 

 equal importance. What is wrong? 

 Just everything. Packing, display, dis- 

 tribution. We as consumers do not pay 

 enough for our packing and advertise- 

 ment, and far too much for distribution. 

 What is tthe remedy? Just one word- 

 co-operation. 



Co-operative work fair to both pro- 

 ducer and consumer. Surely it is possi- 

 ble. It has been, on the whole, success- 

 ful in handling the big wholesale prob- 

 lems of the industry; cannot it get down 

 to the retail side of the question? Not 

 worth while. It seems to us that it is 

 very much worth while. We do not be- 

 lieve that at present 10 per cent, of the 

 households of the city and suburbs eat 

 as much fruit and as varied fruit as 

 they would were it more easily procur- 

 able and at least 50 per cent, simply do 

 not know what fruit is as a healthful, 

 regular article of diet. The position is 

 not so bad in vegetables, but there is 

 room for improvement even there. At 

 present the grower says in effect, "I 

 can grow good fruit, but I can't make 

 anybody eat it." The sooner the grower 

 recognises that he not only has to grow 

 the fruit but makes it his business to 

 make the consumer want to eat it, the 

 better it will be for both parties. How 

 can the grower make the consumer want 

 to eat his fruit? Easily. In three 

 words. 



Pack it nicely. 



Talk about it loudly. 



Deliver it cheaply. 



Are these not just the three things 

 which he does not do and which he does 

 not seem to think are in any sense his 

 business? Of course they are. Yes; 

 just those three things are to-day selling 

 millions of tons of fruit and vegetables 

 over the world. Why, when applied to 



the good fruit grown at the Reedbeds, 

 Paradise, Uraidla, etc., should it not be 

 equally successful in selling more fruit? 

 What is the position? We believe it is 

 to be that while the average grower gets 

 no more than he earns, the average con- 

 sumer pays for much more than he gets. 

 "Cheaply grown and dearly sold" applies 

 very truly to fruit and vegetables in and 

 around the fair city of Adelaide. The 

 question is : Why ? 



In the first place it comes down prin- 

 cipally to a question of distribution. 

 What are the sources of supply avail- 

 able to the ordinary householder?. We 

 have a wholesale market, a retail mar- 

 ket, fruit and vegetable shops, perambu- 

 latory barrows, and itinerant hawkers 

 (many hawkers, in fact), and whichever 

 way j'ou look at it, the way is long from 

 the orchard or garden to the consumers' 

 table, and fruit and vegetables are apt 

 to stale on the journey. The very es- 

 sence of the business should be prompt- 

 ness between the earth in the growers' 

 garden and the cooking pot on the con- 

 sumer's stove, and the present round- 

 about methods do not exactly lend them- 

 selves to promptness, or what naturally 

 follows, cheapness. 



At first sight it may appear that the 

 sources of supply mentioned are ade- 

 quate and liberal, but such an idea will 

 hardly bear close inspection. We can 

 certainly go to the wholesale market 

 and buy a bag of potatoes, a bushel of 

 peas, a case of tomatoes or fruit, and 

 get it first hand, but having purchased 

 it we have to get it home, and in any 

 case the average householder hasn't 

 time to do his marketing, and the house- 

 wife hasn't the inclination and doesn't 

 want wholesale quantities, anyway. 



We can go to the retail market at 

 stated times and buy, we believe cheap- 

 ly and well, but few people care to 

 spend an evening bargaining for a 

 week's supply or carting the things 

 home. We have seen paterfamilias 

 wrestling with a bag of potatoes, mater- 

 familias with a couple of bulky cab- 

 bages, and their assorted offspring with 

 various packages, from a bundle of as- 

 paragus to a peck of peas, but the spec- 

 tacle was not encouraging, nor when 

 the time, temper, and tram fares are 

 taken into account, was the result par- 

 ticularly economical. 



We can buy our fruit and vegetables 

 at shops, but considering that out of 

 every 1/, we pay 4d. for rent and taxes 

 and 4d. for the shopkeepers' profit, 

 handling and wastage, we buy what we 



want at a pretty dear rate. Some shops 

 display their goods well, and some do 

 not. There still remains the question 

 of getting one's purchases home. 



The barrow men are said to fill a 

 long-felt want. On the score of display 

 they certainly do all that can be expec- 

 ted of them. Some people even say that 

 they depend more on display than on the 

 merit of the goods they have to sell. 

 In any case, they sell only in small 

 quantities, and many people have a de- 

 cided objection to publicly buying their 

 household supplies in the open street. 



The final resort for the average 

 householder is the "vegetable man,'" who 

 may be daily seen traversing our subur- 

 ban high roads and bye-ways. Poor 

 fellow; he gets up early and often 

 washes himself, which is apparently 

 more than his attendant "boy" often 

 does. Certainly he has our sympathy, 

 for he at all events earns all he gets, 

 which is not a great deal. Think of the 

 weary miles he travels for his scat- 

 tered customers. Think of the nerve 

 strain of being reasonably polite to a 

 fussy housewife who won't have two- 

 pennyworth of beans which he has, but 

 wants two-pennyworth of peas, which 

 he has not, or being obliged to listen to 

 an animated discussion as to whether 

 the family is to be regaled on rhubarb 

 or gooseberry, in both of which commo- 

 dities he is short, and being obliged for 

 his own sake to put in a word as to the 

 rival advantages of stewed cherries. Is 

 it any wonder that one often meets the 

 "vegetable man" coming with a still 

 laden basket (having successfully dodg- 

 ed a dog, which he cannot properly and 

 justly kick because the "missus" is look- 

 ing on,) from our suburban homes with 

 a face which suggests a visit to the 

 dentist and quite forbids a casual re- 

 mark as to the state of the weather. 

 The trouble of the thing is that he is a 

 quite unnecessary, rather cumbersome 

 and very expensive link in the chain 

 which begins in the garden and ends in 

 the kitchen. 



(To be Continued.) 



♦ 



In packing fruit, whatever size 

 cases are used grade the fruit to size 

 nnd ripeness, fill to the brim, give 

 a gentle shake to settle all dowr,, 

 and finish the packing in such a 

 manner as will ensure its opening rp 

 in the best condition for consump- 

 tion. 



