The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1913-02-08
TO MARKET FARM PRODUCTS
Three Important Factors to Be Cen
sidered From the Standpoint
of the Farmers Club.

VI Liz SSa
It seems to me that there are tnrea
important factors in marketing farm
products that we can consider from
the standpoint Of the Farmers club,
says a writer in the Farm, Stock and
Home. To market farm products we
must have quantity. We have got to
have quantity enough to make Il
worth the other fellows while to give
us the best possible price he can for
that product. We have got to have
quantity enough so that 1t is an OBJ
ject to him to get it from US, and
avoid the trouble Of picking it up
from 20 or 200 people. It is q great
expense to buy carload from
dozen or fifteen people. It is a great
deal cheaper to buy it from one man.
You can afford to pay that one man
a better price. One Of the things We
want to strive for is to have large
quantity of something for sale SO
that we can interest the dealer.
The second thing we want is uni
formity. We want a large quantity
of uniform product. The best Illus
tration Of this is our cooperative
creameries. Years ago where 200
farmers were each marketing $40, SO
or 500, or $50 worth Of butter, and
each one was making a different kind
of butter, different in color, flavor
and appearance, we didn't get the top
price for that butter. Tie man We
sold it to, the middleman, wasn't to
blame. He couldn't take the mixed
| up product and handle it to good ad-
vantage. We have changed ell that.
We have creamery, all that butter
| made in one place under uniform cen
ditions with the best machinery and
| equipment. A man who doesn't do
anything but study how to make the
best kind OF butter is at the head or
| the plant. As consequence, we have
| In our cooperative creameries from
| $4,000 to $4,000 worth of uniform
product from our dairy cows, all con-
! troIled by one man. SO far as selling
| is concerned with the result that the
| price farmers get for butter-fat on the
! farm is almost the same as the price
i city people have to pay for butter.
There isn't a big margin between the
farmer and the consumer In the but
ter market. The butter market is in
the best condition OF any of the farm
products. It seems to be handled In
the most business-like way we have
a large quantity of uniform product.
| The third point In marketing is TO
| place the man who has something to
| sell on an equal basis with the man
who has something to buy. II man
/ drives to town with load Of hogs,
/ he is somewhat handicapped. He
pretty neary has to sell them, or haul
/ them back at considerable expense,
! or keep them where they are a still
/ greater expense It is especially true
1 Il rs takes carl load at cattle to Iha.
atoekyards. can, . pa for feeding.
/ and keeping that stock, He has got
to. sell it right there, and then at
| whatever price he can get for it. If
/ there Is some organization or ar
rangement by which the man who
/ has a product to sell can offer that
| for sale and still be perfectly free to
| refuse the offer, he is In better po-
| sition than he is if he has got to take
| that offer. So IL we can bring the
buyer to the seller, or in some way
level up that inequality between the
seller andsthe buyer, we are going to
benefit the mar0 who has something
to sell and not injure the man who
has something to buy. We don't
wont to kill off all the naiddlemen or
fight the commission people
/ We need to organize SO that we
can handle our products on a BUSH
ness basis. To illustrate. Take the
Farmers club in Meeker county. One
Of the things it is doing is to develop
a livestock shipping association. They
shipped small amount Of stock the
first year and have gradually grown
until last year they handled ST., goo
of livestock. One man sold out OF
that community, the representative
foreman, $4,000. And it actually
cost the farmers In that community
for this one mans wages, a little bit
over one per cent, or something less
than $1,000 annually for handling
that whole $4,000 worth of business