The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1913-02-24

COS
farmers together, ship them in biz
consignments to other middlemen who
follow the process of selling distribu-
ton just as the shipper follows the
process of buying collection.
1t is interesting to go through the
list of farm products and to note the
systems of handling that have grown
up. During a recent year the farms
OF the country produced over s400, :
100000 worth of butter, half of it
manufactured on the farm and known
az dairy butter, and the other half in
creameries, and known as creamery
butter The bulk of the dairy butter
is sole through the grocery and gen.
eral merchandise stores of the coun-
try. Some goes direct to consumers,
to hotels, and to boarding houses, and
the remainder to commission houses.
A part of that which goes to the gen.
eral merchant and grocer is sold by
them to consumers. That which is
not very palatable usually is shipped
to renovating butter factories. ladling
establishments n commission houses
from whence it reaches the hands of
the consumer again.
OF the various methods Of selling
creamery butter the sales by con-
tract" is probably the most used.
Creameries using this method agree
with the buyers handling their pro-
duct that the price shall bear a GER
tain relation to the market quotations
on a certain butter market. Another
method is that pursued by the butter
boards of trade" Here a few small
transactions in butter are made, and
these fix the ruling price of butter for
the day or for the week. The cream
cry sells to the jobber, he sells to the
wholesaler, he sells to the retailer,
and he. in turn, sells to the
of his force of handlers and clerks
gu of the transaction, and no one
ever noted that they have been in
danger of starvation.
Cotton is sold with more system
than any other American farm pro-
duct. 1t is usually sold in the bale,
after ginning, and the average weight
per bale includes the bagging and
ties. These weigh 90 pounds to the
bale. Payment to the planter often is
made partly in advance. Sometimes
the local merchant extends the small
planter credit for a year and then buys
his cotton when it Is ready for sale.
squaring accounts thereafter. Often
the planter consigns his crop to a
factor who is instructed to hold it for
better prices. The factor advances
about tWo-thirds of it's value, and
charges interest for the loan. When
he sells he deducts interest and COM
mission and RENTS the difference to
the planter. After the cotton is ready
for distant shipment it is usually COM
pressed into a very much smaller bale.
United States markets allow from %
to "a pounds for tare, while in the
British markets they deduct about six
pounds to the bale, and in order to
make the actual cotton weigh out
extra bagging is added.
Eggs are usually produced on farms
where they serve only to make pin
money" They are gathered, some-
times every day, sometimes two or
three times a week, and sometimes
even less frequently. If the housewife
or the children find a nest around
the barn Or straWstack, the eggs go
into the market basket without ques-
ton. The housewife usually waits
until she gets from five to 20 dozen
eggs before taking them to the coun-
try store. In some localities, how
ever. they are called for BY the mer-
chant in a market wagon which makes
t1o r,,,1, o~o, ,,1A1,E ~~a. n
fortnight. The merchant, in turn,
holds the eggs until he has a very
respectable number of cases to send
to his commission merchant. That
may be a few days or more than a
week. Then they are sold by the
commission merchant to the whole
saler, who, in turn, sells them to the
retailer, from whose hands they pass
to the consumer.
1t is thus a usual thing for the av-
erage egg to be at least a month old
before it reaches the man who eats
it. That is why the problem of get
ting good eggs is such a hard one.
There are some retail merchants who
handle the output of certain poultry
farms, to the exclusion of all other
eggs, ana the appreciation Oh lHe con-
sumner is expressed in his becoming 4
regular patron of such a merchant.
One of the crops in which the
market system is highly organized is
the apple crop. 1t is a larger crop
h all the other fruit crops COM
bined. if we except citrus fruits. The
three usual methods by which the
farmer sells his apples are ION the
trees" in which the buyer buys them
and has them picked himself; de
livered on the packing table, in which
he picks the apples and delivers them
to the boxing and barreling force; and
IF. o. b. the cars" in which the
grower attends to the picking, the
barreling. and the hauling to market.
The buyers are usually the representa-
tives of large brokers, who, in turn,
sell them to the jobbers, from whom
they pass, in order, to h wholesaler,
the retailer, and the consumer.
Some apples are shipped by the
growers to commission merchants and
still others are sold at public auction.
The fact that a large orchardist or a
group Of orchardists are going to sell