Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1913-02-14
TO MARKET FARM PRODUCTS
Three important Factors TO a. r..
s'dered From the Standpoint
OF the Farmers Club.

- seems 70 me that there are thres
important factors in marketing 70
products that we can consider g.
the standpoint of the Farmers. c,,,I
says writer in the Farm. Stock ara
nome. To market farm products va
must nave quantity. We have GOT -
nave quantity enough to mako !,
worth the other fellows while to eiva
US the best possible price he can fo-
that product. We have got to have
quantity enough so that it is an oh.
Ject TO him to get 1t from us. ana
avoid the trouble Of picking n nm
from 20 or 200 people. 1t is a great
expense to buy a carload from
oozen or fifteen people. 1t is a grea,
deal cheaper to buy 1t from one man
You can afford to pay that one man
a better price. One of the things wa
want to strive for is to have large
quantity of something for sale a.
that we can interest the dealer.
The second thing we want is un,.
formity. We want a large quantity
of a uniform product. The best illus.
tration Of this is our Cooperative
creameries. Years ago where 2Oo
farmers were each marketing $40. Sic
or $40, or $50 worth of butter. ana
each one was making a different kind
OF butter. different in color, flavor
and appearance, we didn't get the ton
price for that butter. The man Wa
sold 1t to, the middleman, wasn't tn
blame. He couldn't take the mixed
up product and handle 1t to good adj
vantage. We have changed all that.
We have a creamery, all that butter
made in one place under uniform con-
ditions with the best machinery and
equipment. A man who doesn't do
anything but study how to make thu
best kind of butter is at the head OF
the plant AS a consequence, we have
In our cooperative creameries from
$4,000 to $4,000 worth of uniform
product from our dairy cows, ali con.
trolled 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
city people have to pay for butter.
There isn't 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. 1t seems to be handled IN
the most business-like way. We have
large quantity of a 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 a 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 stiIl
greater expense. 1t is especially true
IL he takes a carload of cattle to the
stockyards. He can't pay for feeding
and keeping that stock He has got
to sell 1t right there, and then at
whatever price he can get for II. II
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 a better po-
sition than he is IL he has got to take
that offer. So II we can bring the
buyer to the seller, or in some way
level up that inequality between the
seller and the buyeA we are going to
benefit the man WHO has something
to sell and not ini re the man who
has something to uy. We don't
wont to kill of alkehe middlemen Or
fight the commissiO , people.
We need to organize so that we
can handle our products on a bust
ness basis. To illustrate Take the
Farmers club in Meeker county. One
of the things 1t is doing is to develop
a livestock shipping association. They
shipped a small amount of stock the
first year and have gradually grown
until last year they handled $4,000
OF livestock. One man sold out Of
that community, the representative
foreman. $4,000. And 1t actually
cost the farmers in that community
for this one mans wages, little bit
over one per cent. or something less
than $1,000 annually for handling
that whole $117 900 worth OF business.