The San Saba news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1873-1966, 1890-05-09

products not named, in fact, Their,
is little on the list, except tea anC
coffee, that should be imported
There are many plants yielding
fruits, dyes, medicines, and Other
; products useful in the arts or fooG
that could be profitqbly grown, af-
ter suitable experiment, for the
supply of a demand already exist
, ing or to be created, and utilizing
rural labor and increasing the
wealth of the country.
There is further cause of low
prices, which farmers should un-
derstand, very difficult to remedy,
demanding serious consideration
and wise action. 1t is found in
the combination of carriers and
share of the proceeds OF the sale
of farm products. Beeves are sold
to growers for seyen-tenths to
three-fourths of the prices of a
few years ago, and the meat is
sold to consumers in the retail
market at little if any reduction
from the highest prices of the last
twenty ye instance, prime
rib roasts have yeen sold in Wash
ington during that period for 20
cents per pound, and sirloin steaks
for the same. There has been lit
tie variation, as a general rule, in
the price of the less valuable cuts.
The same complaint comes from
consumers in other cities.
Another aspect of the case bears
upon the inexperienced buyer.
The meat that is bought at $3.50
to 81 per hundred live weight is
sold to the consumer at practically
the same prices as that which cost
$3.50 to IS. Rarely is there diff
ference made in the selling prices
of cuts from beeves of different
quality. If such difference is OBJ
served, it is more frequently made
in regard to meat, which a good
judge of beef would hesitate to
buy at all. Unfortunately there
are thousands of poor people who
do not know the difference between
good and poor quality, and they
are most easily imposed upon.
The increasing swarm of dealers
in regular markets and provision
stores shows that numbers of peo-
pie are living off the difference be-
tween wholesale and retail beef.
All kinds CT meats, vegetables,
and fruits furnish similarly sub
sistence to armies of middle
men, Milk is brought from farms
for the supply of New York, for
less than three cents per quart,
and sold to consumers for eight
cents. The hucksters of city mar
kets often get as much for hand
ling product, in a single day, as
the grower obtained for producing
it during a seasons growth. The
contrast between the price of fruit
on the farm and in a city market
is suggestion of greed and extor-
ton. In many markets the price
of variable products are fixed for
the day at early dawn, not with
reference to their cost but in view
of the comparative quantity to
squeeze from the buyer the last
cent that his patience will endure
without declining a purchase. The
poor are robbed still further, when
commodity costs % cents peck,
by charge of Is cents for half a
peck, which is a clear penalty of 20
per cent for buying in small guam
titles. Thus by every imaginable
trick of trade the cost of buying is
increased, while the producer gets
less and less for his products.
The army of dealers in futures
who bet upon the price of grain in
the coming months, and bend their
energies to shape prices to suit
their deals, and do other injury
than merely to prey on each other;
they disturb the natural flow of
trade, check expectation by tenn
porary rise in values, which leads
inevitably to lower prices, later
and greater fluctuations, which
are the meat and life of this class
and the bane of the farmers mar
ket for wheat. The actual buyer
of grain. if Spectator and not
merely commission merchants and
forwarder, may scheme to depress
prices while buying and to boom
them in selling, to the great injury
of the grower. The honest and
Legitimate business of receiving
and forwarding grain. or that of
the buyer who is a conscientious
merchant and not a professional
manipulation of prices, helps rath-
er than hurts the farmer, but the
others, who play games of chance
disguised as business, are the en-