Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1847-06-25
ships his cotton and draws his bills against it

ships his cotton and draws his bills against 1t
for two-thirds Of its value.
These are the very terms under which the
manufacturer that buys your wool disposes OF
his wares at the commission house he employs
Nay it is the usage of the commercial world,
settled by common experience, and therefore
must in the end be confirmed by the experience
of the farmer.
have stated my own c,se, AMI wi lie l am
writing an instance has occurred almost under
my eye which equally illustrates the position /
have taken.
A farmer sold his wool in a neighboring city
last year for thirty cents pound. He has this
moment carried his wool to the same place,
clipped from the same sheep, and every way
lot of wool similar to the wool of last year
He has driven from one end of the street to the
other and has been offered only twenty-four
cents per pound The market is not formed
What will he do !? he needs the money: must
he submit to the sacrifice, or had he not better
do as have done and employ commission
merchant?
Will this sy' em give to the farmer the high
est market price for his wool Does the old
one secure to the farmer the highest market
price Let the farmers of Western N. Y. who
refused thirty four cents for their wool, and at.
forwards took thirty.one, or have their clip yet
on hand, answer this question.
J h market price of wool like that Of any 9TH
cr commodity. is constantly varying. The far
mer is the last man, speaking Of them general.
! ", to keep himself well advised Of the fuctua-
| ii ms of the wool market. But allowing that he
does, is his position such and his wool such
commodity that he can with promptncss avail
himself of every favorable change in the mar
kct In ninety-nne cases out of hundred Ger.
tainly not. But if his wool is lying in the ware.
house of a man who knows all about the fluc-
tnations of the market, and who contributes his
full quota of influence in fixing prices, and who
is daily receiving orders for wool there it is in
a position most favorable for receiving the full
benefit of any sudden impulse given to prices
If farmers have been injured by the old system
manufacturers have not always been benefited.
enquircd the other day of wool stapler when
certain factory would buy their wool The
answer was " they will lay in their stock when.
ever they can buy it best" Guided by this ve-
ry wise sac, a factory laid in two years stock
Of wool, and by the shrewd operation lost $25,.
600. 1presume they are not alone in their mis-.
cry, for, as the wool market has been generally
a recedng one, every factory that has been
equally sharp has met with similar rebuke 1t
is, therefore, to the mutual advantage of the
farmer and manufacturer, that wool should re-
main in first hands. The one, that he may buy
only as he wants. the other that he may he
benefited by any increased demand.
Neither the farmer nor the manufacturer has
any right to lay aside their legitimate business
and become spectators.
do not mean that they have no moral right,
but that if they do so, they will violate laws
which ] am sorry to say many of them obey
more rgidly than they do moral laws, the laws
of legitimate business, and yet it is done by
both. The one who buys, not to supply the &C.
tual demand of his factory but in obedience to
principles of buying when he can buy best
The other when he seeks not merely for fair and
remunerating, but for exorbitant prices. In a
small way it is wise maxim, that he who buys
a thing not because he wants it, but because it
is cheap is apt to find in the end that it is dear
at any price. II 1t does not apply TO the large
operations of men of business it must be very
strange. At all events, both farmers and ma
nntacturers may be assured that we live in times
when it may be safely averred that he will thrive
best who best understands the theory of the
nimble ninepence.
The farmer will feel skittish at the idea of a.
doptng such an arrangement, SO completely a,
variance with the usual mode in which he dis.
poses of his other farm products, but he mus,
remember that his hay grain, butter, cheese
&c, are consumed everywhere and by every
body, and therefore he may well do his own
marketing. But wool is commodity used only
that they cannot come together at the right time
if at all hence the necessity of a third man be.
tween them. whose business it should be to do
for each what neither can do so well themselves
Perhaps "a sound and searching analysis Of
this subject would show that it would be much
for the interest Of the community if all business
was carried on upon this principle under a
better state Of security such would be the case
The merchant is Of necessity a Spectator; he
runs risks. although in theory he only regulate:
the exchanges between the producers and con
sumer. This occupation is lottery, in whicl
some draw prizes, few magnificent ones. The
great majority. however, only accumulate sor
row and disappointment at least such is the
melancholy testimony Of the commercial stats
tics OF every metropolis of business.
You may say to me that you deal directly with
the manufacturer, and therefore the plan pro
posed will not affect you. | answer YOU, ant
other tlock-lnasters who are in the same situa
ton, the manufacturers with whom you dea
: are all honorable men;' nevertheless these
men who are consuming their five or ten hun
dred thousand pounds of wool annually, woul,
not be troubled even with your Insignificant cli
OF eight hundred or thousand pounds, if the!
were not gamers by it. Nevertheless they woull
much rather purchase even your superior clip o
the commission agent. lie will be better pleas
-" s"''ci
: You may have been fortunate-.are well pleas
y cd with the prices the manufacturer has pai
). you; still there are large growers of wool VIII
u tell me quite different story, and will not SEN
n their wool to the manufacturer direct under an
circumstances. Besides, you may not think M
very flatterlng, but could convince YOU, if
: choose, that manufacturers sometimes boast G
the bargains they have made. Every where
= hear the farmers complaining of the unfairnes
= ana lillberaity of the manufacturer can il b
g explained, then, how it is that by some he
l. deemed worthy of unlimited confidence and b
u others complained Of for his want of Ebcrality
i Farmers will not like to be told they are nc
competent to sell their own wool il is never
= theess the experience Of business men, that ur
less they are constantly in the market they ha
d Tar better consign their wool to sell, to an es
G perenced and competent agent, than to unde
take to be their own salesman. .. ....
g Yours, respectfully,
u ]. Is. MOTT.
. ,knowledge they owe the Testor ton of with the
TO this invaluable medicine. share of
I, .nuine unless signed l. BUTTS on the said court
For sale by THEo A. PECK Apothecary and titled TO q
!, Druggist The NOM