Charlevoix county herald., 1915-01-16
Farmer Asks
"IS 1t Fair?
Wants Business Men to Correct
Their Methods of Dealing.

We see a good deal in the paper
against mail order houses, ETC., which
may be all right. am not a victim Of
such concerns, but it occurs to me that
some of our business men should con-
slider their own ways of doing business
lest by their methods they drive busi-
ness away.
Take the meat proposition for in
stance. Our market market men buy
their beef either from Chicago, or from
cattle buyers. hear some one say 81
can buy beef cheaper In Chicago, than
at home" Possibly, can also
buy some things cheaper in Chicago
than at home. If you cut out the middle
man in the beef deal and bought of the
farmer your claim of cheaper Chicago
beef might not be true. A cattle buyer
was in my barn recently looking at two
for the two and he went away without
the calves. butchered the smaller one
and by dint of much phoning managed
to sell one-half of it. 1t was fat, young
and tender. The half and the hide
brought s13.10, and at same rate the
whole would have brought $22.30. Had
he bought it for SIS he could havemade
SO per cent on his money Qess 20 cts)
just for butchering the calf. His money
would have been invested day or two
or three. Mine was invested for six
months. may have been up half a
night with the sick mother determining
that the youngster was properly intro
duced to this world. taught him to
drink from pail when he wanted to
suck everything in reach. 1t may have
been Sunday, just after returning from
Sunday School, and he may have spat-
tered milk all over the front of the only
whole suit of clothes had. may have
lost my hope of a home in Paradise by
vowing that if it wasn't for the love of
the Lord and the fact twas Sunday, I'd
smash his blankety blank head in And
you, Mr.. Market Man, want me to buy
groceries of you, while you buy your
beef in Chicago!
Take the butter business. Earlier
in the winter | was getting "a cents
per lb. for butter fat from Blue Valley
Creamery Co, NOW its 35 cents and
you were paying 25 cents for butter.
| hear someone say-"Some of that
butter wasn't worth 25 cents even-we
had to sell it for soap grease. Possibly,
you have different grades of coffee,
salmon, baking powder, cotton, wool
and silks etc, up one side of your store
and down the other. Why not have
two or three grades of butter? The
quality of butter is not entirely deter
mined by the good house wife and her
method Of churning. II sanitary condi-
tions do not prevail around the barn no
one could make blue ribbon butter of
the cream produced. 1t costs more to
make pure cream just as it costs more
to make so cent pair Of hose than it
does 35 cent pair. The ladies are
willing to pay 40 per cent more for bet
ter hose because they are finer and
wear longer. Personally, I'd rather
wear the IS cent hose, and eat the 30
or 80 cent butter, if the extra or 8
cents spelled "blue ribbon butter" "
Invent outside for just percent of my
gross income last year, and mostly out
of the state.
very seldom do il, but haven't an
excuse for sending outside for merch-
andise il can save 10 or Is per cent,
providing cannot sell my produce at
home for fair price? Think it over.
"A Farmer.