442 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



lottiralttital Jrpartmrat 



E. G. EGGUNG, Contributor. 



Put up Pickles for Markets. 



In previous numbers of the Planter, we 

 have directed attention to several items oft 

 agricultural production in which northern 

 farmers are skilled, and from which they de- 

 rive large revenues, which are almost entirely 

 neglected in Virginia and the South. The 

 scope and purpose of these articles was to show 

 our farmers how to make their farms more 

 profitable, without largely adding to the ex- 

 pense and trouble attending their cultivation. 

 Such were our articles on orchard products 

 and Irish potatoes, to which we again call the 

 attention of the reader. 



Another item of profit to the North, which 

 will claim our attention to-day, is that of put- 

 ting up pickles for sale in the markets. This 

 business is extensively conducted in Baltimore, 

 Philadelphia and New York, and vast sums of 

 money are carried out of this and every other 

 Southern State, which might as well be re- 

 tained at home. It is difficult to arrive at even 

 a proximate estimate of the amount of the tax 

 which the North thus levies on the South ; but 

 a few facts which we have gleaned may at least 

 enable our readers to form some idea on the 

 subject. 



One of the smaller dealers in this city, to 

 wdiom we applied for information, showed by 

 his invoice book that his purchases last year 

 amounted to ninety barrels, and in addition, 

 some one thousand quart and one thousand 

 pint jars of pickles. Another dealer, a family 

 grocer, sells more than two hundred barrels of 

 pickles and at least three thousand jars. 

 There are, in the city altogether, about fifty 

 persons who are engaged in the sale of pickles, 

 arany of whom sell more than double the quan- 

 tity sold by either of the twain to whom we 

 have already referred, so that we may safely 

 put down the supply of pickles furnished to 

 Richmond alone, at not less than two thousand 

 barrels, and fifteen to twenty thousand jars, 

 and when, to this estimate f : r the city, we add 

 what are sold in Petersburg, Norfolk, Ports- 

 mouth, Alexandria, Lynchburg, "Wheeling, &c, 

 &c, it will be seen that the aggregate is enor- 



mous, and that whatever the price at which 

 they are purchased, the total amount paid for 

 them is not a trifle. 



Be it much or little, more or less, every dol- 

 lar finds its way into the pockets of Northern 

 producers, and goes to swell the profits of 

 Northern agriculture. A barrel of home-made 

 pickles is nearly as rare in this market as a 

 white crow. Not that we mean to intimate 

 that no pickles are make in this State. Far 

 from it. Every housewife in- the Common- 

 wealth knows how to make pickles, and makes 

 enough to supply her household and to minister 

 to the gratification of her guests, but how 

 many can be found who will put up pickles for 

 sale in the markets. That is never considered, 

 or if it be thought of now and then, it is 

 speedily dismissed as not worth attention. 

 So we have gone on year after year neglecting 

 this opportunity of making money, and leaving 

 it entirely to our Northern friends. Is this the 

 wiser and better course ? 



We answer no, and we very much desire 

 that our farmer friends shall answer no, like- 

 wise. They might disagree with us if they 

 could plead ignorance concerning the manner 

 of pickling, but this they cannot truthfully 

 do. So far from it, everybody knows that the 

 pickle put up by our Virginia housewives 

 surpass any made in the country ; and we 

 think now of two ladies in Sussex and Hanover 

 counties, whose pickles would speedily take the 

 precedence of all others in the country if they 

 were offered for sale in the market. And while 

 we thus single out two farmers' wives, we do 

 not mean to say that they make better pickle 

 than any others in Virginia, but we would be 

 understood to declare that there is no farmer's 

 wife within the State who cannot make better 

 pickles than those purchased by our dealers in 

 the Northern cities. There is no lack of infor- 

 mation among our people, but there is a sad 

 lack of willingness to practice what they 

 know. 



It would be obviously unnecessary to attempt 

 to give directions to the persons described in 

 the preceding paragraph, as to the mode of 

 preparing pickle for the table, and therefore we 

 shall not attempt to do so. It may aid our 

 main purpose, however, to give some account 

 of the way in which pickle are put up for 

 shipment to market. 



