Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-12-08

price; when he buys barrel the
farmer receives IS per cent. SO, in
the case Of oranges. when the pur.-
!chase is by the dozen the grower re-
ceives 20 per cent. of the consumer
price, whereas, when the purchase Is
by the box the grower gets SO per
cent The rule seems to be, the
4 smaller the retail quantity the small
Ter the, farmers share of the consum-
er's price, go. .1,.. -. -. p. ~.
| Complaint Against the Farmer. :
+ After presenting many details with
regard to the increase of prices on
farm products between farmer and
consumer, the Secretary of 80 Agricui-
ture declares that the conclusion is
inevitable that the consumer has no
we'll grounded. complaint against the
farmer for the prices that he pays.
The farmer supplies the capital for
production and takes the risk of his
losses; his crops are at the mercy of
drought and flood, and heat, and frost,
Ito say nothing of nOxious insects and
blighting diseases. He supplies hard,
iexacting, unremitting labor. A de-
| gree and range of information and in-
telligence are demanded by agricuf-
ture which are hardly equaled in any
other occupation. Then there is the
risk of overproduction and disastrous
ly low prices. From beginning to end
the farmer must steer dextrously to
escape perils to his profits, and indeed
| to. his capital, on every hand. At
last the products are started on their
way to the consumer. The railroad,
generally speaking, adds a percentage
of. increase to the farmers prices that
is not large. After delivery by the
railroad the products are stored a
short time, are measured into the
various retail quantities, more or less
small, and the dealers are rid of them
as soon as possible. The dealers have
risks that are practically small, ex
cept credit sales, and such risks as
grow out of their trying to do an
amount of business which is small as
| compared with their number"
In continuation of this subject, tho
Secretary of Agriculture suggests that
the problem of high prices is one for
| treatment by the consumer. why
| do not consumers buy directly from
the farlners?" he asks. "A distribu-
| ton of farm products in this simple
| way has already begun in England
where cooperative organizations of
farmers are selling by direct consign-
ment to cooperative organizations of
consumers in cities. Farmers CO.
operative selling associations are nu-
merous in this county, but co-opera-
| tive buying associations among the
, people OF cities and towns are few.
| Aside from buying associations main
| tanned by farmers, hardly any exist in
this country. 1t is apparent, there
sore. that the consumer has much to
do to work out his own salvation with
regard to the prices that he pays.
Potatoes were selling last spring in
| some pieces where there had been
| overproduction for 20 cents and in
some places for even cents per
bushel at the farm, while at the same
| time city consumers in the East were
paying so to IS cents per bushel, al
though there was nothing to prevent
| them from combining to buy a carload
or more of potatoes directly from the
grower and for delivery directly to
| themselves"
Production Overtakins Population.
|
| overtake increase Of people, declares the
Secretary of Agriculture, in discussing
one of the features of his report THE
! evidence is very plain that the yields per
acre of our crops are now increasing,
and if the facts were assembled in detail
| for the States it would be found that the
percentage of increase in yield Of many
| of them is greater than the percentage
of normal increase of population-that is,
| the Increase of births over deaths in the
| old native element"
We can not look for any other result
| than that the yield per acre of all our
crops shall increase at an even faster
| rate in the future, in view of the intense
| interest with which our people are turn
| ing their attention toward agricultural
| Improvement. If there are certain forces
| at work which. if unchecked and made
more prevalent. will in the future COM
pei us to bid against the world for food,
the counteracting forces have neverthe-
less been already set in motion, with the
promise of increasing effect
Bureau of Public Health.
The Secretary, while in hearty accord
with the general proposition to provide
pSltet IdCllItlCS WOIK Ill Ine interest
| of the public health, expresses himself
| as opposed to any plan which will re-
| move from the Department of Agricul-
ture the inspection work involved in the
| enforcement of the Food and Drugs Act
and the Meat-Inspection Law, to say
nothing of certain plans which would
| take away the biological and entomology
| cal work of the Department The Secre-
| tary thinks it would be an expensive
| mistake to take away from the Depart
ment of Agriculture work which it is per-
| forming satisfactorily, and which it can
| perform better and more economically
than any other agency.
Legal Operations.
Cases reported to the Attorney-Gencral
| for prosecution under the several laws
administered by the Department of Agri-
culture numbered 1873, twice as many as
| the year before. More than $4,000 in
| fines and costs were assessed: hundreds
of tons of misbranded foods and drugs
were forfeited.
Appropriations and Expenditures.
To carry on the work of the Depart
| ment of Agriculture during the fiscal
year ended June 50, 1910, Congress ap-
/