Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 May 1875 — Tricks of Traders. [ARTICLE]

Tricks of Traders.

A very interesting paper was read before the American Public Health Association Y»y Dr. Samuel Busey, of Washingtow, D. C., on. the general supply of vegetables and fruits to markets, in which he incidentally exposed some of the tricks of the dealers in these wares. He said: The system of freshening green vegetables is extensively employed by many dealers in perishable vegetables and fruits, and is so cunningly devised and adroitly executed that it will escape any but the most careful and cultivated observation. It can be most' practically exposed by individual and descriptive illustrations. Cabbage and lettuce are freshened by stripping off the external layer of leaves and clipping the end of the footstalk, and this process is repeated from time to time until the head is either solid or is so reduced in size as to become unmerchantable. The process of stripping brings to the exterior the blanched and whitened leaves and it oftentimes happens that the blanched head most eagerly sought has been stripped sundry times, and while its surface is apparently fresh and crisp the center is in a state of decay. Cabbage at certain seasons of the year will bear this process without rapid deterioration,, but lettuce is much more perishable. Beets, radishes, and other roots which are offered for sale bunched speedily deteriorate in moderately warm weather This begins first at "the circumference of the leaves, and actual decay at. that part of the leaves and midribs compressed by tying, henc*3 freshening is performed by clipping or tearing off’ the faded parts, and this process is repeated until the midrib is cut short to the crown, and then they are either bunched by the extremities of the roots or sold by measure, so that net unfrequently the fresh beets upon our tables in May and June have been hauled from market to market for a week or more. Peas and beans are offered for sale bulked upon the market stand, and the salesman always measures from the bottom. The surplus from previous sale days is heaped upon the stand, and the entire surface neatly and adroitly covered with a sufficient quantity of the more recently gathered. Great taste is displayed in making the stale surplus look attractive, and much tact is acquired in measuring so as to disturb the surface but little and secure lor the purchaser the full measure of the underlying deteriorated legumen. Spinach and kale, after the first rush of the season is over, are generally so cheap as to render the freshening process uriremunerative; but, when dear, the latter is freshened by clipping or tearing off the faded parts of the leaves, reclipping the foot-stalks, and sprinkling. Spinach in cold weather can be preserved in a fair condition for some days.