GRADING FOR PROFIT 81 



properly constructed basket is also cheap, though the 

 first outlay is considerable if they have to be purchased. 

 So great indeed is the expense that many have been led to 

 shirk it by using the cheapest productions, often irregular 

 in size, and easily damaged, with proportionate risk to the 

 contents. Recognising this, the largest salesmen and 

 dealers have endeavoured to ensure something like 

 uniformity in the packages of their numerous clients by 

 providing baskets for all who consign goods to them in 

 sufficient quantity. The only expense to the grower 

 is usually the payment of the railway charges on the 

 empties, a very small matter, though there is a heavy 

 surcharge for lost or damaged baskets. 



Established market gardeners who have land available 

 for the purpose adopt a more satisfactory method : they 

 grow the willows and make their own baskets on the 

 premises. One grower who has several hundred acres 

 under close cultivation, with fruits and vegetables, has 

 employed three basket-makers continuously for some 

 years ; but he also acts as salesman for other smaller 

 growers, and further his baskets have attained some 

 reputation, and when he has a surplus stock they are 

 readily sold at remunerative prices. The land where the 

 Willows and Osiers are grown is not adapted for any other 

 purpose in its present state, and the cost of draining to 

 bring it under ordinary cultivation would be heavy. 

 Many who are similarly situated might well adopt this 

 plan, as if care is taken in the selection of the right 

 varieties of Willows there is always sufficient demand for 

 good stock to ensure a ready and profitable sale. A 

 leaflet issued by the Board of Agriculture (No. 36) gives 

 some valuable information upon this point. 



The form of basket most generally in use is the 

 round type of various dimensions as the bushel or " sieve" 

 and some modification like the half-bushel, the half-sieve, 

 and the peck. These are made with stout rims and the 

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