School building nt Woods to 
those bids, and incidentally breaking an 
unworkable agreement on an unwarranted 
price. Had they been up to their job, 
they each and all would have been over 
the whole ground before the buyers were. 
Kneh would have summed up the situa¬ 
tion for himself, fixed on the price for his 
various grades of stud', according to his 
best judgment, then serenely awaited the 
coming of the buyers, confident I v told 
them the price, and courteously but 
(irmly impressed on them that price-hag¬ 
gling was simply wasting their time and 
his. In such a situation it is well to ad¬ 
mit that you may not have sized up the 
mnrket aright, and if you do have to re¬ 
duce prices later, they will he welcome 
to the reduction; but that you do not 
believe you will have anything left at the 
price you arc quoting when market is 
over. 
Experience at Harrisburg. —My op¬ 
erations oti the Harrisburg farmers’ mar¬ 
kets, combining both wholesale aud retail, 
was most nearly analogous to the Pater¬ 
son markets. There every market morn¬ 
ing invariably, after the loads were un¬ 
packed and stacked for business, leaving 
the produce in charge of the boy, hired as 
helper. I made a quick, thorough tour of 
the extensive market, to size lip the offer¬ 
ings of produce competing with my 
heaviest, lines, asking friendly questions 
of other growers as to the amount they 
had of the same lines, and exchanging 
opinions with them as to what price the 
market Would stand, sometimes getting 
into mild short arguments as to differ¬ 
ences of opinion; but soon I would be 
back, ready for business, secure in tin* 
knowledge that 1 probably knew as much 
of the day’s marketing prospect for my 
major lines as anybody. 
PiiilosopuY of Marketing, —Tt is en¬ 
tirely evident that this philosophy of 
marketing is based on uttdoubting con¬ 
fidence in and a thorough understanding 
of the law of supply and demand. One 
of the leading arguments of co-operation 
for the co-operators is that if this law 
ever functioned, under modern condili ms 
it does so no more. That theory is abso¬ 
lutely based on error. Modern conditions 
in some instances have forced the opera¬ 
tion of this fundamental law into cir¬ 
cuitous and obscure channels; hut its oper¬ 
ations no more cease than does the How 
of a stream when in parts of its course 
it Hows through subterranean channels. 
Take, for instance, the outlook of those 
buying peddlers as they look over that 
icn, y. J. See First Page 
tomatoes, and was told 15c per quarter 
peck. 1 looked questiouiugly at the pro¬ 
prietor. We enjoyed each other’s con¬ 
fidence. and when the customer was served 
and gone, he explained that he bad not 
reduced the retail price milch from what 
it had been when be paid $2 pet bu.. 
"because,” said be. "with the class of 
trade 1 have here, 1 would certainly sell 
less if the price were reduced to u point 
where they would be considered as some¬ 
thing cheap.” His argument was unan¬ 
swerable. lie certainly was selling as 
many tomatoes as my other storekeeping 
customers, and his customers had an easy 
remedy, us they might have bought to¬ 
matoes from the same field twice a week 
on the public market, two blocks away, 
at less than half the price. That situa¬ 
tion, disclosing the carelessness or snob- 
ishness, or both, of a large element of the 
public explains a lot of human nature, 
and the apparently contradictory work¬ 
ings of the law of supply and demand. 
I am not iu sympathy with that policy as 
to retail prices. 1 think it is shortsighted 
policy and a handicap, and yet if the 
pricing is uniform and consistent, the 
retailer rests squarely on the unanswer¬ 
able proposition : "Have I not the right 
to do what I will with my own?” 
D. L. HARTMAN. 
Notes from a Maryland Garden 
(Continued from Page 1440) 
feet from the use of nitrate of soda is 
on cabbages, lettuce aud spinach. 
There is a great need for better breed¬ 
ing and rogueing of cabbage seed. It is 
hard to find a stock of Jersey Wakefield 
which will give the uniform type of 
Wakefield heads. Mine lust Spring were 
of various shapes, some early and many 
round, fiat and late heads. This is not 
objectionable in a home garden, but the 
market gardener will be seriously ham¬ 
pered by the crop holding the laud and 
tile later heads selling for less money, 
while they prevent the. immediate use of 
the land for succession crops. The same 
defect is true in late cabbage seed. Some 
heads make too early to keep well in 
Winter, aud others do not head at all. 
W. If. MASSEY. 
LOOK FOR THE 
GREEN LABEL 
The RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
December 9, 1922 
The Federal Land Bank of Springfield, Mass. 
‘‘Night on the Market” Brought to 
Daylight 
Part II. 
Selling Perishable Goons.—But, it 
will be suggested, the products are per¬ 
ishable and must be sold immediately or 
lost. Granted. Granted also that it is 
difficult to fix on the most satisfactory 
price for nuy given product, with the 
ever-changing rn,o of supply and demand, 
yet that difficulty should be courageously 
met by the salesman, not according to 
his wishes, not according to prices re¬ 
ceived last year, or even yesterday, but 
according to his best judgment of the 
condition of the market today. He should 
fix such prices for his various products 
and various grades as he thinks will dis¬ 
pose of all his goods to the best advan¬ 
tage, at the same price to all. for like 
quantities, for that entire day if possible. 
This is one of the most difficult phases 
of the gardener-salesman’s work, and of 
course his judgment is not infallible, so 
be has an inherent right to change price 
if the situation urgently demands it; but 
obviously it does not help to have custo¬ 
mers repeatedly find that competitors 
have bought from you at lower prices 
later. 
The Buyer ami the Price. —We were 
told iu a critical vein that the buyers evi¬ 
dently went all over the ruariset and then 
bought where they could to best advantage. 
That certainly should he considered their 
unquestioned right. There is nothing to 
indicate that the farmers did anything 
but stolidly hold out for the highest bids, 
occasionally naming a quotation to test 
sea of over-supply of tomatoes and apples. 
It doesn't require ail unusual imagination 
to picture their visions of trouble and 
uncertainty later in the day. when they 
meet it again on the streets of the city 
in t o hands of their competitors, know¬ 
ing that they must sell their purchases at 
a profit or count the day lost. 
Retail Prices.- It won’t do, on find¬ 
ing that some dealers, and especially a 
few of the most exclusive grocers, sell 
cheaply-bought goods at the same high 
prices as when they paid three times as 
much, to conclude that prices on the whole 
do not respond to the law of supply aud de¬ 
mand. The extra Hood of goods during 
a glut evidently finds demand of n sort 
somewhere, and that somewhere is mostly 
the poorer grades reaching the poorer 
people, to whom they are mere or less 
of a luxury at a reduced price. That re¬ 
duced price may still seem exorbitant to 
the producer, but I am very certain that 
the average producer lias uu adequate 
idea of the actual relative costs of produc¬ 
tion and distribution. We will take up 
that phase in further detail later on. 
The IIigh-ci.ass Store. —Just now let 
us take a look at why the higb-elass 
grocer is not in full sympathy with the 
principle of making his retail prices re¬ 
sponsive to the wholesale price. My 
friendly attitude and comradeship with 
my customers yields me confidence on 
their part that a critical antagonistic at¬ 
titude would not permit. Years ago, on 
the Harrisburg market, while waiting to 
collect for some tomatoes sold at a 
store for something like GOe per bn., a 
customer asked the price of those same 
If you wish to borrow 
money on a long-time, easy-pay ment 
first mortgage on an improved farm 
which you personally operate and 
which is your chief source of i ncome,we 
have funds available at 5 H% interest. 
Send in your application at once as applications 
are considered in the order received. Remem¬ 
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and New Jersey. 
If you wish to invest 
a small or large amount where it will be safe, 
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Inquire of the Secretary-Treasurer of the National 
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