4 



METHODS OF MARKETING— IV. 



A GROWER S GREAT SUCCESS HIS PROPER METHODS RECAPITULATION. 



OHN DOE, of Blanktown, New 

 Jerse}', was left heir to a farm 

 of fifty odd acres of as worn 

 out land as could well be found 

 in the state. Since the days 

 of the revolution, this farm had 

 kept the Does in bread and 

 corn meal, potatoes and pork, 

 home-spun and print, cowhide boots and shoes, and 

 not much else. There was the contribution to the 

 annual donation to the circuit dominie, and an occa- 

 sional bite to the weary traveller who passed over 

 the desolate road ; but beyond these necessities of 

 existence there was hardly a penny. 



One fine morning, our friend John awoke and found 

 himself possessor and owner of this farm and the many 

 traditions which were part and parcel of the chattels. 

 The possessorship raised no feeling of exaltation in his 

 breast, for he knew from sad experience how hard it 

 was to force from this barren soil sufficient for a bare 

 subsistence. He had, however, mixed some with the 

 world, and though he had dearly loved his old father 

 whom he had the day before laid in his grave, he felt 

 that his parent had not kept up with the times. He 

 strode over the farm, now sinking half-way to his boot 

 tops in the light sand, and anon making a wide detour 

 around a stagnant pool of water, covering perhaps the 

 best soil on the little farm. He paused before a huge 

 pile of marl which represented the last work he and his 

 father had done together. "Is this the sort of fertil- 

 izer my land needs ?" he mentally queried. Rapidly his 

 mind went over the years he had spent here, of the tales 

 his father and his grandfather had told of the years of 

 unrequited labor spent on this same farm. He knew 

 that the marl was used simply because it could be ob- 

 tained cheaper than anything else ; but did it supply 

 what was lacking in this soil ? Evidently not. He had 

 heard that the component parts of marl were carbonate 

 of lime, silicious sand and clay, and that the quantity of 

 each was variable ; the clay portion was certainly wel- 

 come, but what if the preponderance were of carbonate 

 of lime or of the sand ? Surely there was already sand 

 and to spare on the place ! His knowledge of the sub- 

 ject would not permit him to solve the problem, but 

 he resolved that no more marl should go on the farm 

 until he understood its chemical properties well enough 

 to know whether it was doing his land good or harm. 



Right about face ! turned our friend, upsetting with 

 one bold plunge all the preconceived ideas of his an- 

 cestors and of his neighbors and friends. The west had 



swallowed up the wheat industry, and his land was too 

 light and poor to grow hay ; so, to make a long story 

 short, with a superb physique, full of life and ambition, 

 a cool, steady head well filled with common sense, and 

 with some money he had saved from occasional jobs of 

 ice cutting when nothing was to be done on the farm, he 

 launched into fruit and vegetable raising. 



By degrees he learned the value of manures and com- 

 mercial fertilizers ; how to properly apply them and their 

 different effects on different crops. He mingled with grow- 

 ers of other sections, with his strong sense separating the 

 wheat from the chaff and applying the knowledge thus 

 gained to his own needs. 



In time his fame became a matter of county pride. 

 At the state fairs one might show enormous strawberries 

 and magnificent asparagus, but the man from John's 

 county would say : ' Yes, they are werry fine, but they 

 don't come up to Doe's stuff, now you may bet onto it !" 



But Doe's chief success was in his superb method of 

 handling his produce, after having spent time and money 

 growing it. His plantations were laid out with care and 

 with due regard to their convenience to every other 

 branch of work ; the sorting and packing sheds were 

 located at the ends of the rows where the crates could 

 be lifted into the wagons without carrying. Every crate 

 and box was scrupulously clean, the boxes were stamped 

 with his name and address, and the crates, painted and 

 and numbered, also bore his address. In some cases, 

 where his fruit went to supply special customers, each 

 box was stamped with the name of the variety it con- 

 tained, and the inside of the box was lined with fresh 

 strawberry leaves : the crates were made especially for 

 the purpose, so that the boxes could be heaped high. 



"All nonsense!" say you ? "Impossible!" say you ' 

 "Impracticable!" say you ? 



Impossible and impracticable with large quantities, 

 simply because the local demand would not be large 

 enough to warrant the time and trouble. But how much 

 nonsense is there in the difference between lo cents a 

 quart, the market price for ordinar}' fruit, and 20 cents 

 to 25 cents for these specially packed berries ? It may 

 be nonsense, but it is also money. 



' ' About this time, " said Doe to the writer, ' ' I had the 

 New York fever. My produce was raised in such quan- 

 tities that the local trade could not handle it, and I 

 must look to a larger market. New York seemed the 

 'land of promise' in this case, and there I wandered 

 one day. I spent three days going through the markets 

 noting the quality of the produce, manner in which it 

 was packed, the price it brought, etc., and then I went 

 back home. " 



