Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1910-12-10


for farm produce received by the
farmer to illustrate his point. He re-
views investigations made by the de-
partment in seventy-eight cities of
prices the farmers received and the
consumers paid for certain staple
articles. In the case of milk, the secre-
tary says, the farmer receives scant
so per cent of the price paid by the
consumer. The railroads get about
z per cent and the remaining 43 per
cent goes to the retailer. But, the re-
taller he explains, has heavy ex-
pense to bear. He explains:
"The milk wagon of the retailer has
a long route. 1t stops at a house or
two in one city block, perhaps passes
several blocks without stopping, and
so proceeds to serve customers thinly
distributed along route of miles. At
the same time the milk wagons OF
other retailers are covering various
portions of the same route, and 80
there is a great waste of effort and of
expense in the distribution"
Other discrepancies between the
prices paid to the producer and the
prices paid by the consumer are
brought out by the secretary's report,
which says:
THE farmer receives hardly more
than half of the consumers price in
the case of poultry; SO per cent in the
case of eggs; cabbage 48 per cent
when bought by the head and IS per
cent when bought by the pound; celery
60 per cent when bought by the bunch.
"The apple grower receives 56 per
nv - th "a
purchase is by the bushel and sc per
cent when by the barrel; the straw
berry grower gets 40 per cent Of the
consumers price in purchases by the
quart and rs per cent when by the
crate. When the consumer buys peck
of onions at time, the farmer re-
ceives % per cent Of the retail price;
when he buys a barrel the farmer re-
ceives IS per cent. So, in the case OF
oranges, when the purchase is by the
dozen the grower receives 20 per cent
of the consumers price, whereas, when
the purchase is by the box the grower
gets SO per cent The rule seems to
be, the smaller the retail quantity the
smaller the farmers share OF the con-
sumer's price"
Then the secretary offers what he
thinks is the solution by asking the
consumer why he does not buy d.
rectly from the farmer. He adds:
"Why do not consumers buy directly
from the farmers? A distribution of
farm products in this simple way has
already begun in England where CO.
operative organizations of farmers, are
selling by direct consignment to CO.
operative organizations of consumers
in cities. Farmers cooperative selling
associations are numerous in this
country, but cooperative buying asso-
Citations among the people Of cities and
towns are few. Aside from buying as
sociatiens maintained by farmers,
hardly any exist in this country. 1t is
apparent, therefore, 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 places where there
had been overproduction for 20 cents
and in some places for even 8 cents
per bushel at the farm, while at the
same time city consumers in the east
we're paying so to rs cents per bushe1,
although there was nothing to prevent
them from, com bining to buy a carload
or more Of potatoes directly from the
grower and for delivery directly to
themselves"