The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1913-01-11
FARM PRODUCTS
systems Subject of Special Report to
Congress by Secretary of Agricul-

congress by secretary of Agricul-
turc.
Washington, Jan. 7.-Systems of
marketing farm products and the
demand for them at trade centers are
the subjects of a special report to
Congress by the Secretary of Agricul-
ture, recently published. The report
was made by special direction of Con-
gress in order that information might
be at hand concerning the establish
ment of a division of markets in the
Department of Agriculture. The Sec
retary specifies various items Of SER
vice 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 q 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 forms of distri-
button, the middleman is eliminated,
although Of course intermediate SER
vices are performed either by pro-
ducers or by consumers or by both
PARTIES.
Among the varieties OF middle
men concerned in the marketing of
farm products are the travelling huk-
sters 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 farm
er who employs a trustworthy COM
mission merchant who will handle his
products honestly and honorably will
get the current prices for them with
In the range of the commission mer-
chants business, but the farmer Of
ten finds himself in the hands Of a
commission merchant who falsely re-
ports that the prod nets were received
N damaged cond!t on or that they
were OF grade 10, er than they were
fact. or he repol Is receiving prices
lower than those a tuany received b.
HAN Ior the products. Worse than
this. II Is by no means rare that the
commission merchant has sold the
products and failed to return me net
proceeds.
Samples Of transactions in which
only one middleman intervenes be-
tween producer and consumer include
the commission man at large market
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 millors;
the warehousemen who manage the
sale OF Virginia pIarter's tobacco.
The intervention Of two men be-
tween producer and consumer is
common occurrence. Fruits and vege-
tables are often marketed through
the aid of two middlemen, the city
dealer and a retail mer-
chant
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
a country buyer; and the purchaser at
such an auction may be jobber, who
in turn sells TO a retail merchant
Five middlemen are thus concerned in
such transaction.
onions raised in Kentucky are
sometimes bought by local mer-
chant and shipped to Louisville; here
they may be put into sacks and con-
signed To a New York wholesaler or