The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1913-01-06
Says That Three and Four are Now
Used in Every Crop Movement
Would Cut Some Out.
PUBLIC WAREHOUSES; ARE GOOD
Have Been Established in a Number
Of Cities and Towns and Save
Much to Consumers.
Special to The Pioneer.

Special to The Pioneer.
Washington, D. c., Jan. 6.-sys-
TENS Of marketing farm products and
the demand for them at trade centers
are the subjects of special report to
congress by the secretary of agricul-
ture made public today. The report
was made by special direction of con-
gress in order that information might
be at hand concerning the establish
ment of division of markets in the
department of agriculture. The Sec
rotary specifies various items of serv-
Ice that could be performed by such
an office, with recommendations that
they be adopted, If it is created. The
report covers 391 pages and is crowd
ed with information with regard to
the subjects treated.
The report treats of the movement
of farm products from the farm to
consumer through a great variety of
channels. The simplest distribution
Is the direct one Of delivery by farmer
to consumer, and next after this is
the delivery by individual farmers or
associations of farmers to individual
consumers or associations of consum-
ers. In these direct forms of distri-
button, the middleman is eliminated,
although of course intermediate serv-
Ices are performed either by produce
ers or by consumers or by both
parties.
Among the varieties of middlemen
concerned in the marketing of farm
products are the travelling hucksters
who 60 from farm to farm gathering
eggs, butter, poultry, calves, and 9TH
er commodities, which they sell to
shippers, jobbers, or retail Dealers
The country merchant is often the
first receiver of such products as eggs,
farm-made butter, poultry, wool,
hides, cotton, and sometimes grain
and hay, In regions where grain is
the staple product, the tendency has
been to ,displace the country mer-
chant by the grain buyer, and the To-
cal elevator man.
Farmers commonly sell through
commission merchants and to some
extent directly to wholesale dealers
and also to retail dealers. The farm
or who employs a trustworthy COM
mission merchant who will handle
his products honestly and honorably
will get the current prices for them
within the range Of the commission
merchants business, but the farmer
often finds himself in the hands of a
commission merchant who falsely re-
ports that the products were received
in damaged condition or that they
were of grade lower than they were
In fact, or he reports receiving prices
lower than those actually received by
him for the products. Worse than
this, it is by no means rare. that the
commission merchant has sold the
products and failed to return the net
proceeds.
Samples of transactions in which
only one middleman intervenes be-
tween producer and consumer include
the commission, man at large mar
ket who receives consignments of live
stock from farmers and sells to pack
ers; the factor to whom the planter
consigns his rice or cotton and from
whom purchases are made by millers;
the warehousemen who manage the
sale of "a Virginia planters tobacco.
The intervention of two men be-
tween producer and consumer is a
common occurrence. Fruits and veg
etables are often marketed through
the aid of two middlemen, the city
commission dealer and a retail mer-
chant. Il
A series of three middlemen may
include first the local buyer of the
shipper; second, the commission
dealer or the wholesale merchant;
and third the retail merchant. In
the sale of fruit by auction, which
is common in large cities east of the
Mississippi river, the auctioneer is an
additional middleman. He may sell
for a commission dealer,to whom the
consignment may have been made by
= country buyer: and the purchaser
at such an auction may be q jobber,
7d0111D1Sz 9 IaSt -.