Evening star. [volume], January 03, 1915, Page 3, Image 27

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
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Drawings by G. E. Wolfe
KEEPING mail on ice sounds bizarre,
and yet that is what the Postoffice
Department has done to prevent par- lifl
eels of perishable goods from spoiling. At the
same time an opportunity is now offered in- BH
venters to devise a cheap thermatic container
that will keep tmngs not or cold tor twentyfour
hours. When such a container has been
devised and placed within the reach of postoffice
patrons it will be possible to get soup,?
hot soup: not of the kind mother used to
make, but the soup she herself makes five HH|
hundred miles away.
\ ? *. *1,? ,.u r ?i? i? *.t,
rvi {JICbCUL Lilt* CIUCl UUbLctClC IU LUC glCilLCl BOH
expansion of the parcel post system, especially
that branch of it which concerns marketing by
mail, with the object of reducing the high cost of living,
is that of temperature, the chief element in the
case. With the advent of cool weather this obstacle
eliminates itself. A pound or live pounds of butter can
be safely sent by mail in wintertime simply well wrapped
; but in summer butter may not be sent unless in a
thermatic container, or at least a liquid-proof container,
so that the melting butter will not run over.
Butter and lard form two of the chief articles of food
sent by means of the parcel post under the farm-totable
or producer-to-consumer plan inaugurated by
the rosTomce Department last spring, it has been
planned to bring the farmers in the outlying districts
of large cities in close togch with the people; and so far
the results obtained leave nothing to desire, when we
consider that the idea has been in operation only a few
months. Many producers are cooperating to the extent
of advertising in the daily newspapers choice articles
at low prices for exclusive parcel post trade.
Ten cities were designated last March for trial of the
noronl ivxcf- oc o t-oliiolo nf rl i ror?t ovolionrio tvof u-onn
producers and consumers, and reports received from the
postmasters of Washington, Boston, Baltimore, St.
Louis, Atlanta, Birmingham (Alabama), San Francisco,
Rock Island (Illinois), La Crosse (Wisconsin), and
Lynn (Massachusetts) show that the new service is
welcomed by the public. Lack of information about
the service and its facilities is preventing many wouldbe
patrons from taking advantage of the plan, notwithstanding
the fact that postmasters everywhere will wel
come requests for information. In my opinion the
farm-to-city table service, despite a few existing difficulties
or obstacles, has come to stay. Its utility is
proved. Rapid growth will depend on and will be guaranteed
by numerous inventions of new containers and
improvements in the service wherever needed. In co6peration
with the Office of Markets of the Department
of Agriculture, the Postoffice Department is actively
working to eliminate the causes of complaints directly
due to improper packing. The Department of Agri
culture has been, and is, devoting no little attention to
the study of containers, especially for perishable goods
like poultry, lard, and dairy products.
Although the postal authorities designated ten cities
to try out the farm-to-table idea, the service has not
I
'.lip^jwwk. ^vn^L
lAJBLb BY
By A. S.
were selected for experiment in pushing and advertising (
this method of exchange. Without exploitation, without 1
the publication of lists of farmers anxious to sell and i
of consumers anxious to buy, direct exchange has never
theless developed into an important factor in the busi- (
ness of many other postoffices and localities. ?
TT is pertinent to remark that not all saving made <
possible by means of postoffice marketing is a ]
matter of dollars or cents. A patron of the St. Louis i
postoffice says that she purchased fifteen pounds of 1
lard from a producer in the country which, including t
container and postage, cost about the same as the 1
price quoted in the local market. The lard, however, ?
was of superior quality and lasted a little more than ?
twice as long as similarly priced lard purchased from
local dealers, making the actual cost less than half that f
of the same article purchased in the city. Fifty country- t
cured hams were disposed of in one shipment from I
Atlanta, as a result of an article in one of the news- s
papers there outlining this farm-to-table feature. The c
price quoted to the purchasers, including postage, was e
less than current market price, while the hams were of s
fine quality, according to Postmaster Boiling H. Jones. ?
In nearly all the ten cities mentioned the shipment j
by post of the more perishable articles, such as butter c
and dressed poultry, fell off during the midsummer s
months, owing to extreme heat. Under the best con- r
ditinns from eiidlt to t.wpntv-fonr hours, according to t
distance, elapse between despatch and delivery, and 1
it has been found that butter or lard will melt when ex- 1
posed so long an interval without refrigeration. Post- c
master Charles W. Fay of San Francisco reports that,
to make it absolutely certain that no perishable matter
be held over, the addressee was notified by telephone, 1
so that parcels not delivered on the last trip in the after- c
noon could be called for by the consignee in the even- 1;
ing if desired. The postmasters seem to agree, how- 1:
ever, that a large increase in the number of packages s
handled was to be expected in the fall and winter, t
and it is believed that the obstacles to hot weather f
shipments will be overcome ere another summer comes. I
A count recently completed by the railway mail ser- t
vice brought out the fact that the average of damage to I
shipments in transit was less than one-tenth of one per a
cent. These instances are about the only cause of the r
3
POST
BURLESON, Postmaster General
I few complaints that have been received.
Moreover, the damage has been due to improper
packing. Success of the parcel ]>ost
depends largely upon proper packing. Mere
number of sheets of paper or feet of twine
used in wrapping and tying a package does
not constitute proper packing. The thing to remember
first and last is to adapt proper packing
to the article to be mailed, and if in doubt,
the best way is to inquire of the postmaster.
B STATISTICS made public by the DepartWt
ment of Agriculture with regard to eggs
?3 show some interesting facts, resulting from
tests carried out for their shipment by post.
In the course of these experiments 9,1:51
;ggs were shipped in 466 lots. Of these 327 eggs were
broken; but a very small percentage of the whole was
ibsolutely wasted.
On this point the officials of the Department of Agri:ulture
give valuable advice in the way of marketing
:ggs by mail. First of all, proper packing is essential,
fhis implies time, care, and some attention, and in their
opinion no attempt should be made to market by parcel
xist any but the finest quality of eggs; for they alone
vill bring remunerative prices. This can be done only
jy candling them. Thus the drawback to marketing
:ggs appears to be the time and trouble in packing them;
jut there is compensation in the extra price that can
ilways be obtained for products that are strictly fresh
ind absolutely reliable.
The shipper's success, in selling by parcel post, derends
upon the care with which he safeguards the repuation
of his products. Satisfied customers will soon
mild up his business for him. Naturally the larger the
mipments the producer can arrange to make, the
cheaper he can afford to sell his goods. In the case of
ggs, for instance, a package of one dozen would require
even cents' postage for the first and second zones. If
mother dozen were included in the same package the
jostage would be about nine cents, or four and a half
rents, instead of seven cents, a dozen. As eggs form a
;taple commodity for which there is always great denand,
their sale by parcel post particularly lends itself
o the individual whose flock of hens is too small or who
ives too far from express service to permit him to ship
nc paac in tlio roonltir nnmmorpi'il coca tViot linlrle tliirfp
lozen eggs.
ALONG with their reports the postmasters transmitted
to the department hundreds of newspaper
lippings, which make it clear that public opinion in the
arger cities is strongly supporting the farm-to-table>y-post
idea. In a few localities, some of the reports
how, the farmers and truck gardeners have set back
he expansion of the service to some extent by naming
trices that, bv comparison with the prices quoted in the
ocal markets, have been considered too high by city
tuyers. As Postmaster Harry B. Simpson of Rock
sland describes it, "It seems that each wants the whole
imount of the savings, the producer asking the city
etail price, while the consumer expects to buy at the