Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1879-11-01
FARM TOPICS.
Marketing Produce.


Consumers are laying in their winter
stores Of vegetables, beef, pork. butter,
apples. etc, and farmers are receiving
the returns for their summers labor.
Marketing is one Of the fine arts, which
every farmer does not understand. Ii
is the trade of the farmer to produce;
the trade of the merchant is To buy and
sell. and il must be confessed that the
buyer is often too shrewd for the pro-
Queer. As we once heard il put, Ear
mers are too honest 10 make much profit
ont Of their produce" but this is not so.
Honesty is the best policy for producer,
middle-man, and consumer. If farmers
do not always sell their produce to the
best advantage, il is not the fault of
their honesty, but rather of their igno-
rance The merchant studies the mar
kets closely He knows what the de-
mand is and what the supply is; where
there is a surplus product and when
there is deficiency; when the market
is likely to rise and when to fall, and
buys and sells accordingly, often clear
ing more in one day than the producer
gains from his summers toll. True,
the middle-man also loses heavily occa-
sionally from bad debts and mistakes in
his calculations, SO that the advantage
is not all on his side: but we wish farm
ers would give more attention to mar
ketine their produce. In order TO do
this they need not become merchants,
for we believe fully in every man stick
ing TO his trade, but they should study
..fs t.. IS h.. ,,,slfl1a
II is, doubtless, true that some men
are born farmers, and others inherit a
constitutional tendency for trade, and it
is not worth while to go contrary TO the
law of heredity, and spoil farmer by
making merchant of him; but every
producer should understand the princi-
piles of trade sufficiently TO dispose Of his
own produce 10 the best advantage. He
must also buy groceries and dry-goods
10 greater or less extent for his family,
and so far is, necessarily, merchant.
We, therefore, may do farmers a service
by calling their attention TO the tricks
we mean principles--of merchants. We
have already alluded to one-studying
the state of the market The merchant
looks over the price current as soon As
his daily newspaper comes into his
hand. He knows whether cheese is ris-
ing or falling, and buys and sells cheese
accordingly. The same is true of APP
pies, potatoes, and every other product.
He not only looks at the price current i'm
one city. but in all the great markets,
and compares production with consump-
ton on large scale. If potatoes
are rctiing in one section of the
country and not in another, he knows
when 10 buy and when TO sell This
range OF vision is not confined TO one
township. The farmer having a good
crop Of apples is too apt TO think that
every one else has the same, and con-
tracts TO sell under this impression at
too low a rate, thus not only diminish
ing his own profits, but damaging his
fellow-producers by establishing low
prices. Merchants are careful not to
ruin each others prices, knowing very
well that this practice reacts 10 the dam
age OF their own trade. Farmers may
not intend 10 undersell each other, but
they do not connect together as do mer-
chants, and, each acting independently
some one selling ignorantly at too low Il
rate makes a precedent which buyers
plead in their purchases for others. II
4 sells apples n IS per barrel and B al
-, the price is far more likely TO fall To
the latter figure than TO rise TO the
former. Ii Il has only a few apples 70
sell, and does not much care at what
price they 90. he should have some re-
gard for A, who has a large orchard, on
which he is mainly dependent for an in
come. \ little more consultation and
cooperation in marketing would be OF
great service TO the farming community.
Il is n principle with merchants and
manufacturers to give their goods an at
traciive appearance. Dry-goods are
well starched and CLOSED, and groceries
are done up in neat packages. Farmers