Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1913-01-23


special report to congress by the sec
! retary of agriculture, recently pub
! lished. The report was made by
special direction OF congress in order
that information might be at hand
concerning the establishment of a di-
vision of markets in the Department
of Agriculture. The secretary speci-
! fies various items of service that
could be performed by such an Of
flee. with recommendations that they
/ be adopted, if it is created. The er-
port covers 391 pages and is crowded
! with information with regard to the
subjects treated
BY Producers to Consumers.
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 farm
er 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 form of distri-
button the middleman is eliminated,
although of course intermediate SER
vices are performed either by produc-
ers or by consumers or by both par
ties.
Intervention of Middlemen.
Among the varieties of middlemen
concerned in the marketing of farm
products are the travelling hucksters
who go from farm to farm gathering
eggs, butter, poultry, calves, and
other commodities, which they sell
to shippers, jobbers or retail deal
ers. 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 ten
dency has been to displace the coun-
try merchant by the grain buyer and
the local elevator man.
Farmers commonly sell through
commission merchants and to some
extent directly to wholesale dealers
and also to retail dealers. The
farmer who employs a trustworthy
commission merchant who will han
die his products honestly and hon
orably will get the current prices for
them within the range of the commits
sion merchants business, but the
farmer often finds himself in the
hands of a commission merchant who
falsely reports that the products
were received in damaged condition
or that they were of a grade lower
than they were in fact, or he reports
receiving prices lower than those act-
ually received by him for the prod
ucts. 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 in
clude the commission man at large
market who receives consignments
of live stock from farmers and sells
to packers; 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 plant
er's 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 retail mer-
chant.
More Than Two Intermediates.
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 a jobber, who in turn sells
to retail merchant. Five middle
men are thus concerned in such a
transaction.
Onions raised in Kentucky are
sometimes bought by local mer
chant and shipped to Louisville;
here they may be put into sacks and
consigned to New York wholesaler
or a commission man who in turn
sells to a New York retailer. Eggs
and poultry frequently pass through
the hands of at least four middle
men.
The marketing of clover seed is an
example of transfer from one farm
er to another through a number of