| | | |unwrapped in barrels, boxes, crates, bins, | | | |etc., if proper attention is paid to sorting, | | | |to providing a cool place for storage, to | | | |occasional sorting during the winter and for | | | |the immediate removal of all decayed fruit. | | | |Even if you do not raise apples, but have a | | | |good storage place, meeting the requirements | | | |as regards temperature, you will find it | | | |advantageous to buy a winter’s supply in the | | | |autumn, when prices are low.

CHAPTER XIX

HOW TO MARKET HOME CANNED PRODUCE

You have some delicious jellies, jams, canned fruits and vegetables that you wish to sell and you do not know just how to go about it.  There are at your disposal several means of selling: 

1.  Through advertising.

2.  Through personal letters to desirable shops, delicatessens, boarding-houses, colleges, etc.

3.  By direct salesmanship; that is, by making personal visits to the buyers, either homes or stores.

4.  Through jobbers to whom you pay a commission on all sales.

5.  Through cooeperative selling.

Perhaps the cheapest and easiest way for you to handle your problem is to employ the method so much used to-day and that is wayside advertising.  Wayside advertising costs practically nothing and yet it pays.

Autos are everywhere these days.  You cannot take a country ride without seeing many signboards at the farm entrances advertising chickens, fresh eggs, vegetables, honey, apples and canned goods.  I have a friend who drives 50 miles every fall for her honey.  She first found it by seeing the sign in front of the farm and now she returns year after year because she thinks no other honey is just like it.  She would never have discovered it if that farm woman had not been clever enough to think of advertising her goods in this cheap way.  My friend told all her other “auto” friends, so the country woman has a splendid outlet for her product now.  If you live on a good road that is patronized at all by autoists you ought to get your signboard up at once.

We often pass a farm where the sign “Fresh Home-Made Candy” always tempts us to stop and buy.  What autoist could resist that sign?  And here miles from town this clever woman is carrying on a profitable side trade, which is netting her a nice little yearly income.  Her candy is good; we go often and so do many others.  She has turned her profession into a paying proposition.  She could send her candy away by parcel post or by some other means, but she would not be so far ahead as she is now.

In addition to your wayside advertising you could advertise in papers, magazines, etc.  Many producers believe strongly in advertising in daily and weekly papers.  You can quickly find out whether this kind of advertising pays.  Give it a trial at least.  After you have spent ten or fifteen dollars in advertising you ought to know whether it pays.