As most people in a small place know of these bargains, through the columns of the city dailies reaching their places, and would like to take advantage of many of them, yet cannot afford the time and expense of making these frequent trips themselves, they were very glad to have this service so promptly and satisfactorily performed for them by one they knew to be reliable. The elderly shopper soon had all he could attend to. Outside of his fare, his expenses were nothing, and while his charges were so reasonable that it saved his patrons many dollars in railroad fare, as well as a great deal of valuable time, it made him a very comfortable living. He not only received a small sum for his service to each customer, but he received a special discount from the store that filled the order.
PLAN No. 63. A THERMOMETER PLAN THAT PAID
The vagaries of the weather have never been regarded as affording a living for anyone except the “local forecaster,” but here is the experience of a man in Iowa who thought otherwise, and made money out of the plan.
He paid $40 for a large thermometer, all complete, the same being about six feet high, mounted on a frame 3x8 feet, and containing space for fourteen advertisements. These he readily sold to merchants of the town, at $15 for each space, bringing his receipts up to $210, or $170 after paying for the thermometer, and many times he sold the entire fourteen spaces in one day’s work. To be sure, he was obliged to buy the thermometers in quantities, in order to get them for $40 apiece, but as long as he could realize a profit of $170 on each, he could well afford that. As his business increased, his orders for thermometers grew larger and their cost correspondingly smaller, so that he soon found himself on the road to success. He did not give this advertising service in towns of less than 5,000 people, and even if he only sold three thermometers in a week, his income was very good.
PLAN No. 64. LETTUCE GROWING, $100,000 A YEAR
Some ten years ago two brothers went to a North Carolina town, in the fall of the year, rented a piece of ground near the outskirts, carefully laid it out in large beds, and planted it in lettuce, to be sold to northern markets during the winter months.
The inhabitants of the town ridiculed the idea, declaring that the lettuce would freeze when the weather got cold, and even if it grew, it could not be sold at a profit, but the brothers said nothing, for they knew what they were doing.
The lettuce, after planting, came up nicely and made a rapid growth, but it wasn’t allowed to be touched by frost. Covers to fit over all the beds were made from coarse cotton sheeting, and held in place by hooks fastened to rings in small stakes driven at the corners and edges of the beds. These covers were taken off when the sun was shining and replaced over the beds at night, when there was frost in the air.
Soon the people of the town went out to see how the lettuce crop was growing, and were so astonished at its marvelous growth, and the fabulous prices it brought in the northern cities, that large numbers of the people took up lettuce growing as a regular business. It was not long before the receipts from the lettuce in that town were $100,000 a year, and everybody was growing it; the men in the fields, the women in their gardens, and all making money at it, for the variety was of the best, the soil just right, and all conditions were adapted to its culture.
Usually two crops were grown each year, one in the late fall, the other in the early spring, and it was shipped up north in board baskets, where it brought from $1.25 to $3.50 per basket, according to its grade and the condition of the market at the time of its arrival. The people in that town do not laugh any more when lettuce growing in the winter is mentioned, for winter time is harvest time down there.