A Tew Remarks. 



This catalogue is my traveling salesman, his salary is very modest, 

 and his expenses, including hotel bills, horse and buggy to drive out to 

 your home, etc., is a lc stamp. He has plenty of time and will not press 

 you into conversation when you are hurrying to finish some important 

 piece of work before night, but will quietly lay on the shelf or on your 

 desk until the day's work is done, you have had your supper, and are com- 

 fortably housed before a good warm fire, when you will no doubt enjoy 

 his company until bed time. Your order! Yes, that is his object in vis- 

 iting you, but you will not be urged to give it tonight but any time when 

 it suits yon only be sure not to put him off until you are ready to set 

 your plants. He will offer you good goods at fair prices. I am not in the 

 bargain counter business and do not bait my hooks with misrepresenta- 

 tions to fish for suckers. Neither do I claim to be the only honest man 

 who grows strawberry plants for sale, and when the fellow who does 

 make that claim comes around on a friendly call better keep your hen 

 house doors locked and the key in your inside pocket. More representa- 

 tives than my little salesman will probably call on you and some may offer 

 you varieties at $2 per 1000 while others charge $4 per 1000 for the same 

 variety; the natural tendency is to buy from the former, but the one that 

 does so seldom gets twice the value for his money. I have bought a good 

 many thousand plants from a good many different people and my exper- 

 ience has generally been that a man usually gets about what he pays for. 

 When you buy cheap plants you will generally get your money's worth 

 and when you pay a higher price you will also get your money's worth. 

 The test is none too good and is almost always the cheapest in the end. 

 But unfortunately a strawberry plant is a strawberry plant with a good 

 many growers. We buy our trees by their age, size, straightness, etc. 

 Fruit demands a price according to its size and conditions, roses sell 

 largely according to the length of their stems, but with many fruit grow- 

 ers it seems to make no difference whether a strawberry plant weighs 12 

 pounds to the 1000 or 40 pounds; whether they have been carefully hand- 

 led from the time the fork was put under them till the cover was nailed 

 on the crate, or whether they were treated roughly and carelessly. These 

 different conditions are not always represented accurately in the 

 price but they are to a considerable degree, and the fellow who thinks he 

 is getting three or four dollars worth of plants for two dollars is pretty 

 sure to get foolpd and the fellow who pays a reasonable price seldom gets 

 cheated by so doing. In this business as in others there are two classes of 

 dealers. One attracts the people who are always looking for something 

 cheap. The other demands fair prices for good goods and gets customers 

 who want quality rather than cheapness. The people who seek cheap 

 things may be the shrewdest, but the men who have made a BUCOeBG 

 trucking, fruit growing, etc., have a way of buying their seeds, plants, 

 fertilizers etc., where they can get the best and expect to pay a fair price 

 for it. While people who run too much to cheapness generally run 

 against the same tendency in others whom they are Becking as customers. 

 Hoping you have all experienced a prosperous year in 1902 and wishing 

 you greater success in 1903, I remain. Yours faithfully, 



W. F. ALLEN, 



