Western Carolina Democrat and French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1913-1915, 1913-11-06
cO-OPERATIYE MARKETING.
Charlotte Observer Outlines Methods
by which Farmers car Facilitate
Marketing of Products.

4udhl1LACo 0A0 W q A0A 0N -
people, and for which a market has
been established by the buyers of the
world. Thus the small ~by-products Of
the farm have been neglected and al
lowed to go to waste, but the time has
come when our crowded condition and
high-priced land demand that the farm
be made to return cash from every
available source. The only way this
can be done is for the farmers to CO.
operate in selling their ~by-products
and, better still, in selling their entire
product, The expense of selling the
small products eats up the profits
when handled individually.
For example, suppose there are Is
farmers in a community, each having
hens laying an average of n dozen
eggs a day and each of the Is farmers
contract with a merchant to supply
him with eggs and guarantee daily de-
livery of fresh eggs. The farmer lives
five miles from town and each, in or
der to be sure to deliver fresh eggs,
makes daily delivery, it would take
nearly half a day and expense of
wagon and team to deliver 80 cents
worth of eggs. Or suppose he deliv-
ers every other day, o%ne-fourth of his
working hours are taken in delivering
go cents worth of eggs. He can't af-
ford it, therefore delivers, once a week.
the eggs being stale, theNmerchant is
forced to pay stale-egg prices. He
comes discouraged and quits the egg
business.
Suppose those Is farmers get togeth-
er and agree to have n man take IN
the Is dozen eggs, or 80 dozen every
other day. The thirty dozen would
be enough to attract a merchant and
get a regular contract, so the time
taken running about town trying to
peddle the individual dozen would be
saved. The man, or a boy could
take them in and deliver them to the
merchant for 50. Suppose they pay
the boy and team $3.50 a trip which
would be a commission of five cents a
dozen. The farmer would have a. bal
ance of $84 a year from an average of
one dozen eggs a day.
Suppose you have an equal income
from four or five sources like eggs,
which every farmer can have and sold
i'll the same way and delivered at the
same time by the same person, it would
mean a good many dollars for the COM
munity in the ourse of a year that are
practically lost. It does not re-
qUire any complex organizations to in
augurate such a selling cooperation
All that is needed is simply a clear
business agreement and then go to-
work.
Confidence Gained.
Another advantage to be gained
be- the confidence of the mer-
chant i'm you, that he would be able
10 secure those by-Droducts to supply
his customers Regularly and not have
10 import those things. If at any time
he had a special order or his supply
gave out he would know to- whom to
phone for more, for you would have a /
head to whom you could go.
Our time is worth dollars and we,
must begin to observe our time by
doing a given thing in the. shortesr
time and IN the best manner possible.
The business world is beginning ~ /
DEE aroused on this subject and is taxi |
ing steps to aid the farmer in cooper
selling. Mr.. Houston, Secretary |
Agriculture, is ~en3eavoriEg to work |
Out, a method of aiding the farmer to. |
sell. The Southern Railway has ar-
ganized a market agent department
which is helping the farmer and buyer |
yet in touch with each other. E. j. |
Commissioners of Agriculture, |
Of South Carolina, has organized a /
narket-fiHding department in oonnec- |
ton with his Office and is doing much !
to aid the South Carolina. farmer to !
his crops. The Chamber ofCom /
of Rock Hill, s.. c.. has a plan
whereby the farmer can report any |
thing he has to sell to the secretary |
md it will be put on the market. The |
Anderson, S. c., Chamber of Commerce /
has a large blackboard along the side |
IF the wall. Any farmer can come in
and post on that board anything he
may have for sale Or trade and IS
helDed to find a purchaser.
other agencies have plans underway TO
aid along this work.
The entire business world realizes
HE necessity of cooperative selling o. !
rhe farmers by-productss especially.
but how TO go about it has been the
question.
We are of the opinion the major part
Of the problem is goin to have to br
by the farmers themselves. No
organization can be Of much service to
farmer as long as he brings his |
products to town in "dribs." Most of
our b~y-products are ~per1shable, or
largely so, and have to be marketed
after production. Therefore, 1T
seems that the only way the problem
can be successfully solved will be by
the farmers getting together and send !
ing to market by one person, instead of
dozen doing in. They also must
have a head for the community that
the outside world can know and COM
municate with. 1t matters very little
how many agencies may be established
to locate markets for our products, If
they are unable to find the product to