114 
American Agriculturist, August 23, 192$ 
■—I -4 *4 9 /vixieucaii /agriculturist, A U5 
Selling Farm Produce By Letter 
And Suggestions About Roadside and Home Marketing 
C AT 
j - / * 
it PDUl-TRY VARDv^ 
s A cTwhite: leghorns 
WINTER LAYING STRAIN 
GOTHAM, WiS < 
-—FOR SALE . 
This is the roadside sign used by James Gwin of 
Wisconsin, discussed on page 119. Its outstanding 
features are its size and substantial construction as 
well as the neat and easily read printing. 
T HE question with the farmer who has a 
little of this and a little of that to sell is 
how to find his market. The big producer 
knows who will take his entire crop off his 
hands. II he has a truckload or more of grapes 
to sell, there is a ready made market for it. If 
he has a thousand beef cattle, the market is 
waiting for him. But if he has a hundred baskets 
of grapes or if he has butchered a hog and wants 
to sell to the consumer in order to get a price 
worth while for his small quantity of product, 
then he has to search for a customer, and it 
may take more time 
in finding the buyer 
than the return war¬ 
rants. 
It is with a view to 
helping the farmer 
with a product he 
wants to sell direct to 
the consumer, that 
the letters given be¬ 
low have been pre¬ 
pared. If the farmer 
wants to do much of 
this direct selling 
business, he ought to 
have a typewriter on 
which to write his 
selling letters. If 
there is a boy or girl 
in the family, that 
boy or girl will quick¬ 
ly learn to operate 
the machine well 
enough to write the 
selling letters from a 
ready prepared original. The trouble with pen- 
written letters is their unbusinesslike appearance, 
their frequent lack of legibility, the time taken to 
write them. Lacking a typewriter, it will pay to go 
to a public typist in town and have the letters 
written, paying the small fee necessary for thework. 
The first step is to get a supply of good- 
looking letterheads, paper and envelopes bearing 
the farm name, if it has a name, the name and 
the post-office address of the farmer and the 
location of his farm. It is worth while to give 
the farm location because the development of 
consumer-buying will mean that some people 
will want to motor out to the farm to buy, or 
will be glad to stop there as they pass on other 
business. In this respect the farmer is in the 
same position as the merchant who must tell 
people where his store is located and make it 
easy to find him. 
The quality and style of the farmer’s letter¬ 
head will give an impression just as any business 
man’s stationery does. It is worth while to have 
that impression as good as it can be made. People 
will judge the farm’s products by the farm’s 
appearance and by the appearance of its letters, 
before they have had an opportunity to judge by 
the products themselves. 
Here is a letter for the use of the farmer who 
wants to sell maple syrup direct to the family 
trade instead of lumping it at a lower price to 
the merchant or produce buyer. 
Dear Madam:—The delicious flavor you like in maple 
syrup is obtainable only in a product that is made with 
great care. 
Nothing is a more desirable addition to your breakfast 
table than fine maple syrup. For use on pancakes or on 
hot biscuits it is unequalled. For making that wonderful 
cake, maple sugar cake, nothing can take its place. No 
artificial flavoring approaches genuine, first class maple 
syrup. 
The children can have no candy as good or as whole¬ 
some as maple sugar candy, and maple sugar itself is 
the best of all sweets. 
I have 100 gallons of as fine syrup as we ever made. 
It is from the earliest run of sap, the sweetest and best 
flavored. It is clean and clear and as heavy as it can be 
made without sugaring in the cans. 
This syrup is in gallon cans and I am selling it on orders 
as fast as they come in, while it lasts. $3 a can and every 
can full weight and perfect in flavor. It will kepp inde¬ 
finitely if kept cool. / 
Mail the enclosed postal card to me telling me how 
coqo'honey 
By A. A. READERS 
many gallons to bring you. Or call Maple Farm on the 
farmers’ telephone line. I deliver promptly. 
With a can or two of this syrup you can have '‘warm 
sugar” whenever you want it. 
Yours truly, John Higgins 
It will be noticed that the above and the other 
letters are addressed “Dear Madam.” The 
woman of the house is the one to whom such 
letters should usually be sent, and in order to do 
this sort of advertising effectively, there ought to 
be a mailing list of 
housewives made up, 
containing the names 
of all to whom the 
farmer has previously 
sold and such other 
.likely people as he 
can learn about. And 
if each letter is writ¬ 
ten separately, so it 
can be done,tthe 
name ought to be 
used instead of mere¬ 
ly Dear Madam. - It 
interests the reader 
more quickly if called 
by name, “Dear Mrs. 
Johnson.” 
Not long ago I had 
occasion to buy some 
potatoes. I asked 
prices at the grocer’s. 
He told me he was 
paying the farmers 
75 cents a bushel 
and selling them for $1. The farmers who 
were taking the easy way, the way that was 
less bother, were getting 25 per cent, less for their 
potatoes than such farmers as sold direct to the 
consumer. The smaller grower could easily 
make it pay to go after the direct consumer 
business, and here is a letter that might be used 
for that purpose. 
Dear Madam:—You know what a difference there is in 
potatoes. Some are soggy when cooked and the fault is 
not in the cooking. Some are just dry enough to be mealy 
and delicious. Some are not fitted for baking. 
I have been raising potatoes for a good many years and 
there is something about the soil of my farm that seems 
to produce better potatoes than the average. And I 
think I know how to store potatoes, too, so they do not 
lose their quality 
IWW 
be -- D - D „ , 
They are about as good potatoes as I ever grew, 
price is $1.50 a bushel, delivered to you. 
I have a few bushels of smaller potatoes of good quality 
but under the average size. They are equal to any for 
many purposes and the flavor is good. While these last 
you can have them for $1.15 a bushel. 
I sell no one less than 
top price on a high quality basis. Each farmer 
acquires his reputation for the quality of hj s 
farm products just as a manufacturer does. Here 
is another letter to be used in calling attention to 
the crop of new‘potatoes when the digging 0 f 
them begins. 
Dear Madam:—My new potatoes are just right now 
and I can supply you with what you want. You needn’t 
pay fancy prices any longer for potatoes brought in from 
another State. The home crop is ready. 
If I do say it, I don’t believe I ever raised a crop of 
better early potatoes than this year’s. They are good 
sized, dry and mealy, cook up just right, fine taste. You 
will say they are as good as any you ever had. 
A postal card or a telephone" call to Riverdale Farm 
will bring you a bushel right off. Price $2. 
Or stop as you pass and get whatever quantity you 
want. Nothing less than a bushel delivered to town by 
me. You can take along a peck yourself. 
Yours truly, James Hodges. 
There is one food product that everyone uses 
and that everyone wants absolutely fresh. People 
will pay the top price for* eggs they know to be 
right from the poultry yard, not more than a 
couple of days old. With poultry becoming so 
important a line and receiving so much attention 
it is worth while to try for the best price on eons 
and on broilers. 
Dear Madam:—How could you keep house without 
eggs? Do you sometimes get eggs from the store that 
don’t seem to be just the best in the world? 
It is pretty hard for the grocer to know just how old 
his eggs are. I have a little the advantage of him there- 
I gather my eggs two or three times a day and I know 
when they were laid and I can swear to you that the eggs 
I bring you are not thirty-six hours old. They may not 
be half that. 
If you want absolutely fresh eggs from hens fed on 
carefully selected, clean food, and laid in neat, protected 
nests, eggs that are fresh inside and clean outside, call 
me on the Farmers’ ’Phone and I’ll arrange to supply you 
with eggs. I bring eggs to town three or four times a 
week, sometimes oftener. A post card to me will make it 
sure that I will stop next trip. 
My hens are White Leghorns, laying a fine, large white 
egg of delicious quality. 
If you want eggs to put down in water glass for next 
winter, I can arrange to supply you several dozen at a 
time, but I must know in advance so. I can plan it. Eggs 
to-day as I send this letter are from 50 to 70 cents a dozen, 
according to grade. I get the top price and give you top 
qU Fb ty ’ TT , , , Yours trul y» E. B. Hazzard. 
P.b. How about broilers for Sunday dinner? I have a 
fine lot now, weighing about iy 2 pounds each. 11c lb. 
Here is an apple letter. The use of such letters 
might in many instances bring money for apples 
that would otherwise be wasted. Early apples 
My present supply averages good size, large enough to 3‘ 1 WOU< ^ otherwise be wasted. Early apples 
■ fine baked, but not too large to bake through easily, otten go to waste on the farm, especially in a 
ley are about as good potatoes as I ever grew. My good apple year, just because it does not spptu 
a bushel at a time be 
cause it does not pay 
me to deliver a smaller 
quantity. 
Until new potatoes 
are ready for market 
at a reasonable price 
I am sure you will want 
to use these. They cost 
you no more than 
grocery store prices and 
they are exceptionally 
fine. 
Y 7 ou can mail me an 
order on the enclosed 
card, or you can tele¬ 
phone to Riverdale 
Farm. 
Perhaps you will be 
going by in your car. 
Stop in and see how I 
store potatoes. You 
can buy a peck or any 
quantity if you will carry them home yourself. 
Yours truly, James Hodges. 
To the farmer who wants to build up a reputa¬ 
tion for supplying people with first-class farm 
products it is not necessary to say that any crop 
that is not up to first class might better be lumped 
off to some large buyer without trying to sell at 
This is the roadside stand described by Lee McCray 
on page 119. The use of some characteristic con¬ 
struction as in this case has a decided advantage in 
establishing a reputation. 
good apple year, just because it does not seem 
worth while to gather them at the prices they 
will bring. But it is usually the case, even at 
such times,. that there are in town not far away 
many families who wmuld like to have early apples, 
can pay for them, but 
have no convenient 
way of getting them. 
Dear Madam:— 
This is a good apple 
year. Early apples 
are plentiful and of 
good quality. I don't 
know as I ever had 
nicer ones. 
They are not bring¬ 
ing a very big price 
and, as you know, 
early apples will not 
keep long, so it makes 
it, hard to sell them 
through stores or by 
shipping them. 
I am picking some 
every day, picking 
them with care to get 
the sound ones so they 
will last until used, and these fine flavored, sound early 
apples, red astrachans and early harvests, I am selling 
delivered in town for a dollar a bushel. And with each 
bushel I give away a good sized sack of apples picked 
up from the ground, good tor cooking if used right away. 
I don't believe you can get a better dollar’s worth in 
fruit anywhere. 
And I'll make you this proposition. If you will come 
(Continued on page 119 ) 
