Norwich bulletin., 1918-11-01
THE FARMERS TALK TO FARMERS
REAL PRICES AND FIXED PRICE s

(Written Specially For The BulIetin.)
 I have neighbor who went in big" on onions, last spring. He has some excellent land for that crop-black, numus- filled soil in reclaimed swamp. He also is the only farmer I know of who has at his call all the boy help he can use for wedding en- ions.
 Altogether, by reason of his almost unique position in respect of soil and labor, he thought, as the rest of us did, that onions ought to be his ''best hold" He. put in several acres. They did tolerably well. considering tho sea- son. He told me that he harvested over sixteen hundred bushels
 He still has about half Of them on hand, despite his best efforts to sell them. ''They are drug on the mar ket," he said to me. the other day.
 He began selling at $1.75 a bushel. Then he was pounded down to $1.40 Next to $115. Now he can't sell his remaining stock in a lump for even $1 bushel. He is selling a little of it at that rate. But, apparently, he is go- ing to have a good many hundred bushels left when winter sets in, and the problem of safe storage against freezing becomes acute.
 He has city of 125,000 within thirty miles of him; another of 10000 within twelve miles; another of 15,000 within twenty five miles; and several villages running from 5000 down within that last limit,
 At the same time when he is vainly l trying to sell six or eight hundred bushels of onions at dollar bushel, 1 the federal food administrator for the county, including the largest city I have referred to issues a flair price" list for that city. This is list of prices which, in the judgment of the l food administration, are what buyers | ought to pay for produce. In that list I find "onions per pound 1-2 to ) l cents." That means from $2.25 to 1 $2.50 per bushel of fifty pounds.
 Why is it that, when $2,25 to $2.50 is set down as flair price" for onions in this particular city. my neighbor, 1 within easy hauling distance of it he has a good auto trucll-can't sell his crop. even at s1 a bushel
 The answer is as plain as the nose on any mans face The middlemen who are. getting from $225 to $2.50 a 1 bushel, +grudge the farmer q a bushel l They take from $1.25 to $1.50 a bushel as pay for their services in handling the onions once. They begrudge him $1 bushel as pay for his work in fit ting the land, sowing and hoeing and wedding the crop. harvesting it, pay l ing for seed and fertilizer and labor and furnishing the land, fenced and tax-paid!
 They want more than just three ] fifths of the price. They don't propose 1 to let him get two-ffths out of it, ii l they can help.
 "And still we wonder at crime!"
 The same flair price" list says that potatoes ought to be obtainable al
 from 49 to 52 cents a peck.'' In re- cent issue of a prominent farm paper which gives much attention 70 rura markets, I find one county reporting l the price paid by buyers for potatoes is $1 a bushel"
 There you 'have it, again. A "fail price, to the buyer is set down at the rate of $196 to $203 per bushe1. Bu | the price for the farmer is $1. And 1T | this case, the localities Of the IwC
 prices are not fifty miles apart. Now it is not probable that the same l buyer who pays a dollar a bushel fol 1 onions or potatoes is the one who get:
 ell the 8 or $2.50 which the consumer pays. Ordinarily the speculator wht
 buys of the farmer passes his pur
 chases along to some commission
 merchant, first exacting q profit fO himself. The commission man pasSe them along to the retailer, first takin: out his additional profit. Then the re taller hands them over to the con
 sumner, making sure, beforehand, tha