Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1913-01-07
BETTER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM
Secretary Wilson Would Make the
Farmer His Own Middle Man.

If the recommendations or James
Wilson, secretary of agriculture, are
carried out, congress will speedily make
provision for the establishment of d.
! vision Of markets in that department
| which will include funds for the main
tenance Of a force of field agents to
assist farmers in organizing for "asso-
ciative marketing" of their products
The report of Secretary Wilson to
congress, covers 391 pages and dis
cusses the various systems Of market
ing crops now in vogue, as well as the
utter lack of system Of the average
farmer. While there is a popular no.
tien that the American farmer, as a
class, Is rolling in wealth, the report
shows that the average farmer is still
| plodding along, not receiving anything
like a fair return for his outlay in
money, brain and Drawn.
The intricacies of various systems OF
marketing are gone into at length, and
Secretary Wilson concludes with his
recommendation that a field force OF
market experts be maintained for the
farmers benefit.
In addition the secretary proposes
| that a large corps of local agents find
correspondents to be established to aid
in the work of organization, to examine
and remove local difficulties in the way
Of associative marketings, to help pro-
ducers find markets, to report the cur
rent descriptive condition Of crops, In
addition to the work already done by
the departments crop-reporting ser
vice, to estimate the probable produc-
ton of crops short time before har-
vest, to report the beginning and end
ing Of the shipping season, and to report
the crop movement from producing
points through 'gateways' to principal
markets.
The secretary does not recommend a
general market news service, which, II
derived from telegraphic reports would
entail an enormous expense. The re-
port has the following to say about the
participation Of consumers in the solu-
ton of marketing problems:
"A cheapening of the farmers cost of
marketing will naturally result in a
gain to the producer rather than to the
consumer If the consumer Is to gain
by changes in the cost of distribution
it seems probable that he must do so
through cheapening or eliminating costs
at his end of the chain of distribution.
The consumers can cheaper the costs
of farm products by cooperative buy
ing and by reducing the expenses of re-
tail and other local distribution. The
consumers aspect of the problems of
the distribution of farm products Is a
conspicuous one at the present time,
and problems in distribution that are
concerning the consumer rather than
the producer may we'll be included
within the service of division Of mar
kets."
Instances are given in the report
where from one to five middlemen in
tervene between producer and ultimate
consumer, each receiving some COM
pensation for his part of the work. The
simplest distribution is the direct one
by producer to consumer, and next af-
ter this is the delivery by associations
of farmers to individual consumers or
associations of consumers. Even in
these direct forms of distribution, how
ever, some intermediate services are
performed either by producers or by
consumers, or by both.