St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1911-08-05
WHO GETS YOUR DOLLAR.

The prices the farmer receives and
the price the consumer pays for 1000
products was what interested the
people assembled in large numbers
at a session of the New York State
AGRICULTURAL Society at Albany, N, Y.
Many examples of what the farmer
received were given. One farmer
said he shipped barrel OF apples
and put a note in it saying, - got
II cents for these apples. Will the
consumer kindly advise me what he
paid for them?'' Fhe consumer
wrote that he had paid s4.35: The
former remarked that $3.50 had
gone to the railroads and the deal
ers. A railroad man interJected
with, "Analyze!" The farmer said
the railroad received so cents, SO he
and the railroad together had re-
ceived $1.35, and the dealers $500.
The subject of eggs was taken up.
Eggs are packed in cases OF 80 dozen
each. An egg averages two ounces
pounds gross and 40 pounds net. The
railroad rate, covering almost the
entire length of the State of New
York, say, from Buffalo to New York
City, a distance of 425 miles, is 33
cents per 100 pounds; therefore the
rate is less than IL cent per dozen.
The farmer receives Is to % cents
per dozen for the eggs and the con-
sumner pays 35 to As cents.
The farmers in general said they
had no complaint to make about
railroad rates. Ali they ask for is
service. It appeared, however that
farmers had made general protest
disclaiming blame for the high cost
of foodstuffs, claiming they only re-
ceived low of fair rates, and they bad
taken up the matter with the United
States Department of Agriculture at
Washington, D. G., to find out
whether the railroads or the middle
men were to blame.
Mr.. Geo. ]. Holmes, an expert
statistician of the United States De-
partment of Agriculture, made an
exposition of figures. He stated that
he had to devote considerable time
to arrive at conclusion, had gone
into thousands of rates and dis
tances, and had the benefit of the
records of the Interstate Commerce
Commission on rates. He said:
The result of my endeavors is,
that for the great classes of COM
modities embraced in the descrip-
tions Of potatoes, and poultry and
dairy products, the general average
cost of freight transportation from
the farmers shipping point to the
consumers market is about seven
per cent. of the price paid by the
consumer to the retailer.
eve now stand where we can
determine approximately the frac-
ton of the consumers price that
goes to the middlemen in the case
OF those great group of products.
The farmer receives fifty-three per
cent of the retail price, the railroad
gets seven per cent and the farmer
and railroad together get sixty per
cent SO that the remaining per cent
goes to the middlemen."
For every dollar that the con-
sumer pays to a retailer in the gen.
eral average for his potatoes, fruits,
and poultry and dairy products, the
farmer receives fifty-three cents, the
railroad seven cents, and the middle
men forty cents"
A railroad man got up to say:
Rates on farm products have al
ways been fair. They are only a
very small fraction of the price the
ultimate consumer pays.
IF farmer merely earns enough
to keep the farming going he has no
surplus purchasing power to invest
in machinery and improvements
The railroads seek a slight increase
in rates through which they u II have
a command for improvements a free
and surplus energy in the shape of
a larger margin of profit above cost
The Intermittent.