The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1914-04-17

but that the trouble is caused by the
manipulation of the products from
the producer to the consumer.
We can not undertake to enumer-
ate all the reasons offered for the
prevailing high prices to consumers
and low prices to the producers. But
let US see if we can not find some
helpful suggestions for the producer
and consumer in Tennessee. Let us
eliminate extraneous matters and get
right down to the milk in the cocoa
nut as it affects Tennessee producers
and consumers.
l made the statement recently that
more than rs per cent of the food
products sold to the consumers in the
cities and larger towns in Tennessee
were imported by the dealers from
outside the State; that the dealers
reasons for doing so were that he
was in business for a living, that his
customers demanded a certain quail
ity of goods, that he must keep the
quality and quantity his trade re-
quired if he made a success of his
business; that he could not buy from
local producers either the quantity
or quality at home and he was COM
PEELED to go outside the State to buy
i. In this way millions of dollars
leave the State for products that
should be produced here and keep
this vast sum OF money in local circu-
lation. No one can dispute the fact
that we can produce as good as the
best produced anywhere. Our best
farmers, dairymen, fruit and vege-
table growers have proven that be-
yond question.
No one will claim that Tennessee
is producing one-half what the State
could produce in agricultural pro-
ducts if all our farmland were cult
waited as well as our best farmers
are cultivating their land. If that
were true, and there were community
cooperation among the farmers to
produce the best possible and offer it
for market, uniform in quality and
sufficient in quantity, dealers would
buy it and pay as good prices as they
would pay elsewhere, saving trans
portation charges, saving the cost, in
many cases, of freight both ways, for
the surplus products of the farmers
are sold at low price to dealers who
cannot afford to pay high prices for
poorly graded products. These are
sometimes shipped away and regrad-
ed, repacked and shipped back to be
sold to consumers for more than dou7
BILE the price paid the producer.
Our problem in Tennessee is to
induce our producers to increase
their production and improve the
quality of their products to compare
with the best grown anywhere. To
accomplish this we must have better
methods of farm practice. We must
improve our soil, our live stock, and
give more intelligent attention to our
orchards and small fruits. We must
get better knowledge of what our
consumers require and strive to meet
those requirements.
We are not going to make any
Roadway by clinging to obsolete me-
thods of farm practice. We must re-
alize the conditions have changed,
and adjust ourselves to present day
conditions. In many sections crops
are grown not suited to soil in that
locality. There is no specially attract
i've market for the product they are
growing, and their soils are better
suited to a different crop for which a
better market would be easily avail
able.
A merchant carries line of goods
for which he has a demand. Every
community should make a special
feature of producing the crops, live
stock, etc, for which they could find
the best markets. Every community
can find some special features in ag-
riculture that it is specially well fav-
ored for producing.
These problems can all be worked
out by community cooperation. The
farmer working alone cannot accom-
plish as much as a community work.
ing together. To illustrate: In one
county on the Cumberland Plateau
most every farmer produces potatoes
for their own use and many of them
have from Is to 200 bushels for mar
ket. They had been trying to sell
their individual surplus, but they
found it difficult to interest dealers in
such small lots. But one man took the
matter in hand and learned how
many potatoes each man could select
and deliver on notice. He easily Sc
cured carload and came to Nash
vile and realized nearly double per
bushel what the farmers could have
sold them for in the usual way.
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