THE RURAL XKW-YORKEK 
519 
Right After the Consumer’s Dollar 
Tart III. 
The Woman’s Hide. —On the other 
hand, the women themselves often have 
just cause for complaint, and there will 
lie need of considerable change in the 
methods of many farmers if their attempt 
to get nearer the consumer’s dollar is go¬ 
ing to meet with any permanent success, 
either direct or through the grocers. The 
citv Consumer is often entirely ignorant 
of many of the little points that count so 
much towards the quality of fruits and 
vegetables, that are so very familiar to 
one raised on the farm, and it is easy 
enough to impose on them, but it is espe¬ 
cially true in this line of business that 
"while it is further around the corners of 
n square deal, it is a great deal smooth¬ 
er travelling.” The man who purposely 
sells a woman or grocer rotten eggs, may 
not suffer in a business way as far as he 
is concerned, as lie may not need to go 
over the same territory again, but it is 
had for other producers; as a woman in 
Ilornell. who had had just such an exper¬ 
ience. said to me one morning: "These 
farmers are the most dishonest people in 
tlie world.” an opinion she had formed 
from her personal experience. It is a 
short-sighted policy to use as a bait, the 
reputation in the name of a variety to im¬ 
pose on the consumer in making sale of 
inferior or often entirely worthless trash. 
A few instances noticed of this kind were: 
Corn sold as Golden Bantam, that was 
either very “old” Bantam, or common 
(lint field corn, past use for human con¬ 
sumption ; green musk melons, with stems 
still hanging tight, fit only for hog feed; 
small, green, scabby, wormy Faineuse 
apples, ordered and accepted by a grocer 
from a farmer customer who said he had 
some nice Snow apples, and Spy apples, 
picked a month or six weeks too soon, 
sold from door to door late in Summer, 
on the reputation of the name of this sort. 
The city consumer takes these baits free¬ 
ly, but eventually finds it out. and the 
producers suffer in the long run. 
Giving Satisfaction. —I usually car¬ 
ried a few No. 2 or canning grade, to sell 
along the road, and sold a good many 
bushels in that way, sometimes to auto¬ 
mobile parties who passed me. As our 
\'o. 2 were all sorted up strong, they gave 
good satisfaction and advertised them¬ 
selves. The sale of one bushel in a neigh¬ 
borhood resulted sometimes in selling of 
several others. In this connection I was 
surprised one morning, as in passing 
through Arkport T called to a young fel¬ 
low standing on the porch, to know if 
they wanted any tomatoes for canning. 
‘Yes. we will take two bushels.” “Well.” 
I said, “don’t you want to see them?” 
“No.” When I took them in he said; 
“Father just telephoned in to stop you. 
He passed you on the road and saw some 
you sold at another house.” People 
watched for me along the road, and I 
generally had orders to deliver each trip. 
There were plenty of tomatoes, but the 
consumer likes good stock and with it 
ijood measure. One great difficulty in 
meeting competition with the cheaper 
grade, not only in Ilornell but locally was 
the skin-game worked on the consumer 
through the use of the 14-quart handle 
basket containing frequently n«*t over 20 
pounds of tomatoes, which were sold as a 
half bushel. One of our bushels would 
almost fill three of these so-called half 
bushels The women we sold to were 
generally surprised and pleased to get so 
many for a bushel and frequently had to 
go back for an extra pan or basket to hold 
them. 
Increasing Consumption. —There is 
not the least doubt that one can increase 
consumption of these perishable farm pro¬ 
ducts by careful grading and making them 
attractive. Carelessness in sorting and 
putting up a crop, causes loss and 
trouble to those who handle it. and re¬ 
duces the demand for it. frequently just 
when an extra outlet is really needed. Of 
course, we went to a great deal of extra 
work in handling this crop of tomatoes, 
but on the other hand, had we taken the 
easy way, picking them in the handle bas¬ 
kets like those others used, sorted them 
as others did, or did not, aud then like 
many others, shipped them to a commis¬ 
sion merchant or other specialist in sell¬ 
ing, we might have been fortunate to have 
d me as well as the Arkport celery grow¬ 
er did who, I was told, shipped a car¬ 
load of celery to a Philadelphia commis¬ 
sion merchant the past Fall, and got his 
returns in postage stamps. 
Public Markets. —It is probably safe 
to say that I met If ndreds of women in 
Ilornell before I finally sold those first 
two loads of tomatoes, and but two of 
them mentioned the need of a public mar¬ 
ket. One said sin* had been to the door 
six times that morning to answer the call 
of peddlers, selling fruit and vegetables, 
and she had just dismissed one at the 
other door, and came to see what I 
wanted. I agreed with her that a public 
market would be a good thing if the 
women folks would just go there to buy. 
But until it becomes the style for the 
city woman to carry a market basket, and 
not run to the ’phone when she runs short 
and see how many times she can have the 
delivery wagon stop at her door, there is 
little hopes of a public market accom¬ 
plishing the purpose for which they are 
established. In the two large cities near 
us, Buffalo public market is attended by 
few women, and but little of the produce 
passes direct from grower to consumer; 
and in Rochester the whole system is a 
farce, and farmer and consumer alike suf¬ 
fer, for the huckster has them by the 
throat. The farmer cannot sell from door 
to door, and as I understand is even 
handicapped in selling to the grocers. 
The usual program seems to be that he 
goes with his load to the Farmers’ Market 
and waits for the hucksters to buy him 
out. The hucksters stand around until the 
farmers are tired, and then buy at their 
own figure, but the consumer pays the 
price, and the city protects the system for 
revenue only. 
The Grocer’s Side. —As a rule, I think 
the grocers would be glad if they could b ■ 
relieved entirely of handling vegetables 
and most of the fruit. There is a great 
deal of loss connected with that end of 
the business, and it often makes more 
trouble than all the rest, through the dis¬ 
satisfaction to their customers, and there 
is altogether too much trouble in the 
source of supply through careless handling 
and sorting and entire disregard for the 
interests of or satisfaction to consumer. 
In doing business with grocers, one needs 
to keep these things in mind, and not 
think the only consideration is to get 
rid of tho stuff, and let the grocer paddle 
his own canoe. The demand for such 
goods is always uncertain, and during a 
sudden change to extreme heat, the losses 
in handling these perishable goods are 
often very heavy. Where one is selling 
time after time to the same round of 
stores, it is a small matter to replace now 
and then, a few stale left-overs unsold from 
a previous load, and it makes better feel¬ 
ing, where one takes some interest in hav¬ 
ing the other fellow come out all right. 
Of course, one needs to use some judg¬ 
ment in such matters; as, especially to a 
foreigner keeping a small store, and per¬ 
haps a large family, getting a few extra 
tomatoes or ears of corn, means quite an 
item; and this might easily be carried too 
far, but they seem better satisfied if they 
can get ahead of one a little in a deal, 
even though one does have to charge 
extra for what he sees them stow away 
in a big coat pocket. Sometimes the big 
fellows like to rub it in, too. On the last 
trip with tomatoes I asked one of this 
kind if he wanted any more tomatoes. 
“No,” he said, “the last I bought of you 
nearly all rotted.” The fact of the mat¬ 
ter is it had been a very trying time on 
grocers handling tomatoes, with the 
wholesale (?) produce company canvass¬ 
ing the town from door to door, with their 
car of cheap tomatoes from Rochester, 
and the Greeks with their two cars of 
the same that had arrived in Ilornell 
about that time. The demand for toma¬ 
toes from grocers was confined to fancy 
grade from high-class or wealthy trade. 
J. C. R. 
The lady of tin* house was explaining 
things to the new maid. “An’ what’s 
this, missus?” asked the girl, indicating 
a metal bottle. “That is a bottle which 
will keep things either hot or cold, which¬ 
ever you desire,” replied the mistress. 
“Well, for the land sake!” ejaculated the 
girl. “IIow is it gwine to know whether 
you want things hot or cold?”—Philadel¬ 
phia Chronicle-Telegraph. 
Dodge Brothers 
MOTOR CAR 
The two owners of this business are 
also its actual active superintend¬ 
ents—not by proxy, but in person. 
The manufacture of every part and 
piece used in the car must conform 
to gauges and measurements de¬ 
termined by them. 
They fix the formulas followed in 
melting, shaping and forging the 
steel, iron and brass. 
From 'the 'handling of the raw 
metals to the final assembly, the 
departments in charge of every 
process and operation are responsi¬ 
ble to Dodge Brothers themselves. 
They have themselves designed many 
of the wonderful time-saving, labor- 
saving machines which make this 
car possible at the price. 
Their idea of manufacturing is that 
the car should be made so good 
that it will practically sell itself. 
No manufacturing detail is so small 
that it escapes their scrutiny. 
No suggestion from dealers or cus¬ 
tomers is too trivial to receive 
consideration. 
They know exactly how every part 
should be built—not in theory, but 
from practical experience in manu¬ 
facturing the vital parts for more 
than half a million cars. 
They have reduced to a simple science 
the problem of using the best ma¬ 
terials and the best methods money 
can buy, and still saving time and 
money at every step. 
They are skilled specialists in large 
production and small economies, 
who hold the quality of the car at 
the highest possible level. 
That this is a statement of fact is 
evidenced by the car itself. 
You will look in vain for anything 
cheap or ordinary in the inside or 
the outside of Dodge Brothers’ car. 
In .proof of this:— 
The leather is real grain leather. 
The tufting is deep and soft; the filling, 
natural curled hair. 
The 35 h. p. motor is cast en bloc, with 
removable head. 
The rear axle is of the full-floating type. 
The bearings are Timken thruout—with 
S. R. 0. ball bearings in clutch and 
transmission. 
The springs are made of Chrome Vana¬ 
dium steel, and are self-lubricating. 
The wheels are hickory, with demountable 
rims. 
The body is all steel, including frame, 
with a perfect stream line effect. 
The fenders are of a special oval design. 
The magneto is an Eisemann waterproof. 
Everywhere you will find drop forgings and 
drawn work instead of castings. 
The car is giving satisfaction everywhere. 
Its performances provoke nothing but 
praise. 
You will realize the very first ride you 
take that it has all the responsiveness, 
comfort and power you want in any car. 
There will, be no mistaking the buoyant 
spring action—the freedom from gear 
shifting—the fine balance which makes 
it stick to the road—or the dogged pull¬ 
ing power of the silent motor. 
If you care to have it we will be glad to 
send you our Book B, which gives an 
unbiased opinion of the mechanical 
value of the car, written by an engi¬ 
neer not connected with this company. 
The wheelbase is 110 inches 
The price of the car complete is $785 
f . n. b. Detroit 
Canadian price $1100 (add freight from Detroit) 
Dodge Brothers, 123jos.CampauAve., Detroit 
rf\\ C.PLAIN view 
kV/Lk SEED PLANTER 
Has no Brush or Metal Cut-off. Never-failing Gravita¬ 
tion select* the seed. It exeels In accuracy for Corn, 
Peas. Beans. Peanuts, etc. Most remarkable seed planter 
—practical—useful—simple—yet most surprising. Write 
for full description. 
THE COLE^PLANTER has been the stan- 
k dard in many states, many years. 
It will pay you to investigate 
the COLE Plain View Seed 
Planter—the most won¬ 
derful improvement 
Un seed planters since 
\ time began. 
Write today! 
E MFG. CO. 
Charlotte, N. C. 
Mower 
Write for 
free 
Catalog 
This machine has the one right cutting principle- 
center draft. Cutter bar is directly in front of wheels 
— mows back and forth on one side of field in 
any direction. No side draft. Cut crop is left in 
standing position and cures rapidly. One-third sav- 
! n 5jn * lme and labor. The Eureka Mower abolishes 
tedding and trampling of cut crop. It’s the ideal 
mower for orchard and working between rows. Will 
cut weeds In pastures and brush that no other 
mower will handle. 5 sizes for one or two horses. 
47 years on the market. Machines bought 30 
years ago, and used every * 
year, still in use. Prompt 
shipments. Write to-day. 
EUREKA MOWER CO. 
Box 868, Utica. N. Y. 
m 
K1 
El 
[) SPRING n 
l\ TOOTH J 
n 
Ll 
u 
El 
WORK RIGHT UP TO YOUR TREES 1 
Cultivate entire surface between rows without disturbing boughs or fruit. Does 
more work—easier and quicker—and leaves better surface mulch than any other 
cultivator. Used by thousands of fruit 
___ growers and pronounced indispensable. 
One grower says: "The Forkner 
reduces labor 40%”. Another says: 
“We have all kinds of tools, but we 
can do our work quicker and bet¬ 
ter with a Forkner”. Still an¬ 
other says: “I wouldn’t take 
Srso. for my ForknerTiller if 
•* I couldn’t get another”. 
2. -a Write today for catalog and 
, free book—"Modern Soil 
Tillage” — invaluable to 
any farmer or fruit 
grower. Mailed free. 
Write today. 
LIGHT DRAFT 
. HARROW CO. 
612 Nevada St. 
__ ^ Marshalltown, la. 
5»W 
