The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1911-09-16

market MS own products has not the best of the
bargain He is very likely to have If his farm is
located near any good-sized town or city and If
he is engaged in diversified farming or trucking
or course the man who is farming on a big scale
and devoting himself to speciality, be 1t fruit or
celery or nuts grain will not haul his produce
to town by the wagonload and dispose Of it at
first hand to the hungry housewives. All the
same 1T is ten chances to one that he is following
the same basic principles that are the wise ones
for the farmer DESTROYS Of selling to the best adj
vantage the varied products of small farm.
All the shrewdest men engaged In farming
be they operating on large or small scale
have learned In recent years that 1t means added
wealth and reduced worries If they can adopt the
principle of selling as directly possible the
ultimate consumer. Obviously of course, they
cut out the middleman's profit and better yet,
they are enabled to eliminate many of the losses
In perishable products which have caused SO
much controversy between commission mer-
chants and farmers. Finally, by marketing d.
rect, the tiller of the soil can establish reputa-
ton for the quality of his products and this is
most important asset for the man who expects
to continue in the same vocation year after year.
Indeed, building on the foundation of quality and
prompt delivery he may build up a circle of
patrons of his own that will render him indie
pendent of everything because they will stand
ready year after year to take the entire product
of his farm and take it, too at prices higher than
rule for the regular Of similar produce in the
open market.
AS the advantages Of such plans of direct deal
ing have been brought home to the farmers they
have been gradually perfecting their facilities for
making the short cut from the farm to the city
dinner table. The farmer who is specialist in
fruit vegetable raising or any other line is
likely to have his own sales agent who goes to
the city with each consignment Of produce and
personally superintends it's disposition, or If he
is not operating big enough scale to do this
single handed he is likely to join forces with sew.
eral Of his neighbors to engage representative
who will handle their pooled products to the best
possible advantage. In any event the quantity of
produce TO be handled insures to the shipper thus
situated the best of freight express service IT,
indeed he has not adopted the particularly upto-
date method of transporting his farm products
by means of motor trucks.
The small farmer or truck gardener operating
on small scale cannot Of course afford the lux
ury of q sales agent, but on the other hand he is
no longer content, IL he be wide awake, to divide
profits with the commission merchant who in
sists on clinging to old ideas. So the small farm
er, If he belong to rapidly growing class, makes
it practice to journey to the city two or three
times week and to dispose of his products in
the open-air marts which now a feature of al
most all of our large cities. His canvas COW
cred wagon is made to serve as his sales counter
and he thus has no expense.
In many instances If the farmer trucker be
toe busily engaged upon his farm to spare time