BUYING LIVE CTOCK Qy MAIL-PAGE 10.
A Farm mid Home Weekly for North and
a.
Vol XXV. I Ho; 49. . : RALEIGH, N. C, DECEMBER 10, 1910.- .J
IL11. '. - ' ; - .- t; ,t r ,:, t. . j , - . .1 ....... 4, fJ, , ,..-- . , ,1 ,J ; ' 1 - ' ' ' '
THE
t .t;
FARMER
f'; i?
Br HAyE HEARD MUCH lately about the 'increased cost f of
DOES NOT GET HIS SHARE
J ft- Alt
ft
living.", , it has played its, part , In the political campaign
through which we have Just passed, ? and .. the unusually Tiigh
prices of farm products to those who have them to buyhave led a ;
lot of city' newspapers into painting the farmer as a man rolling in;
wealth .and holding the rest of, the, world, at his mercy. '.AiVery;pretty-
, picture, -no : doubt, but one scarcely Justified by i facts.' '
' vi.'-'cri
' -' It is fortunately M
not unduly sbjp and It ia unfortunately true that a great m&iyjout& !v
neariy: all farm products, have failed to derive any great benefit from
the high prices of those things
with which ' the farmer sup
e
rs
cent of the 1 ultimate price received by the ; producer. One would.
, of course, oxpect this, : as also that the price to the consumer should "
be, higher, when t article is sold in small lots. For example, whea
; onions are sold ;by the T barrel, the. consumer pays a little less thaa
twice as much as the grower receives, but when they are sold by the
:f ; peck; ho pays' over three , times . as much, v f ; i
; In.either case there is to much difference between the first price
: an& (the iaW.'he middlemen and he transportation companies are,
ihm3L i'' f o?tiici "jtoXad , pay for , their i
; work; but we are yet to be convinced , that it is ;wort& as. much to
distribute the farmer's milk to the consumers as it is to produce that
milk, we feel certain that
" jr '
L
plies the rest of the world.
um u u umair 10 .conciuae . l - n . r,
that f farmers in general . are
getting rich at too rapid
rate. The price of what the
fariner has to buy, as well as
of what he has to sell, has in
creased, and more than this,
the increase in the price of
farm products has not all been
going into the farmer's pock-,
et not by a great deal.
On this point there are
some interesting figures in
the Annual Report of the Seo
- retary of Agriculture just is
sued. June last an investlga
tion was made in 78 cities as
to the difference between the
price received for milk by the
4
producer and that paid by the
consumer. In the cities investigated in the Norch Central States, the
producers get Just 44 'per cent of what the consumers pay; in the North
Atlantic States, 53 per cent; in the South Atlantic States, 57 per
cont; in the South Central States, 55 per cent.., Taking the country
a a whole, the proucer gets about 50 per cent of the final market
Price, the railroads about 7 per cent, the retailers . about 43 per
cent. ,-j6. j.u ...
Investigations made some time ago, but which Secretary Wilson
thinks applicable .to-day because, as he says, "It seems probable that
the farmer Is ' not now receiving a larger share of , the consumer's
price than he received ten years ago, and he piay be receiving a
smaller," ihow that '.the farmer gets 55.1 per cent of what the con
umer pays for poultry, CO per cent of what he pays for eggs, 55.0
Per cent of. apples when sold by the bushel, 48.0 per cent of straw
berries. He fares better with staple crops, getting 03 per cent of the
cotton money, 72L0 per cent On wheat, 73.0 per cent on oats, 01 per
cent on cattle when bought by packers,1 03 per cent on hogs
aud so on. 1 fr ' r
It will be, seen at once that the fewer hands a! product passes
Bgh on 1U way from producer to consumer, the larger the per
ty-J- u-ov, '?; c X'L-n. yi'i' y ,
. II II
.iijliiii
when, the railroads and the
merchants get as much out
of an apple crop as does the
man who cared for the or-:
chard and picked the fruit
and barreled it and delivered
it to the station, that there
is something wrong. In short,
there are too many middle
men and their profits are too
large.
Here Is a problem, to the
solution of which our wisest
men may well gfre their
best thought. It is incon-
celvable that such a wasteful
and unjust' system Of distri
bution should be permitted to
continue much longer, but it
Is one thing to recognize its
evils and another ' thing to
cure them. We have no pan
acea to offer, for this state of affairs, but it seems to us that one.
remedy, in many individual 'cases, must at once suggest itself: When
ever and Wherever he can, the farmer should sell his products directly
to the consumer.' He 'can thus get more for them, and the consumer
can get them for less cost. In many cases he can do this directly
by securing regular customers for his butter or eggs or Vegetables,
but this necessarily means that he must have a regular supply of these
products and bo prepared to guarantee, .(beir quality. In other cases,
no&bly in 'the 'case of trackers fruit' growers 'and 'dairymen, co-operative
associations, which will deal directly with the consumer, at least
1 .WS' he? wonderfully. :: . ?!hf.;D
ll 14 a Dig prooiem ami one wnicu miui uo wivcu, u uu uuuicr
liTever to proOt as'he 'shouldy"theiiigh"p theeonamers4
have to, pay for farm: products. r,ti ' ; . flo rn
Coartesy Mobile and Ohio R. B.
POULTRY YARD OF R. L. McBRIDE, NEAR MOBILE, ALA.
This
Tho Demonstration Work, Baying Farm
'Implements Judiciously, In Praiss o Steele
Hatbandry, Beittr Rental Contracts, Women's Institutes; Th9
True Spirit of Chriiimqs, Buying Livs Stock by Mail, Obser
yationa in Japan, Guernsey Cattle, December Garden Work.