Have you ever considered the very slight relation of “price” to “cost,” also how frequently the word “cost” is misused? An article purchased at a low price often is referred to as being “cheap” when eventually it may prove far more costly than a higher priced article of better quality.
Don’t be deceived into believing that low price represents real economy. There are many factors in addition to price which go to make up ultimate cost and low price very often indicates “cheap quality” resulting invariably in “high cost.”
The one satisfactory way to reconcile “cost” and “price” is to be absolutely sure that the price you pay enables the producer to embody quality in the article.
The following comparison furnishes an intelligent application of the question of economy in the purchase of strawberry plants:
Let us assume that you have a strawberry patch consisting of 2,000 plants divided into two sections, each composed of an equal number of plants of the same varieties. One section is composed of “cheap” plants. You know nothing about the fruiting reputation of their ancestors nor the conditions under which these plants were produced. In fact, for all you know they may have been taken from a fruiting bed. You simply know that they are strawberry plants and that you obtained them at a low price.
The other section is set to Kellogg Pedigree Plants for which of course you paid a higher price. Perhaps you felt that you were unwise in paying the difference as there may be no visible difference in appearance.
At fruiting time however, when each section tells its own story, you will find that the “cheap” plants will have absolutely no argument to offer in their defense as the Kellogg Pedigree Plants will far outyield them and the berries will be of much higher quality.
At the close of the fruiting season you’ll more fully appreciate the difference in “cost.” The “cheap” plants require setting, feeding, hoeing, cultivating and lodging (use of your ground) to the same extent as others. In return you have found them loafers while the plants which at first seemed expensive were constantly on the job at fruiting time producing loads of big fancy berries which found a ready market at profitable prices.
This comparison is being made right along by thousands who are thus brought to a fuller, stronger realization of the folly in being influenced to set “cheap” strawberry plants.
To the thinking person, it is a self-evident fact that Kellogg Pedigree Plants which are bred in conformity with Nature’s laws up to the highest possible standards, must be far more profitable and desirable than plants produced to meet a certain low price.