The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-04-16
Advantages of County
 Elevators Demonstrated

ID AGGRESSIVE agriculture calls 0 for grain elevators. A year ago the need of elevators in crop |diversification coupties-and that means practically every county in Ala bama-was pointed out, and now that it has been demonstrated that the county in which an elevator is op- erated has cash market for corn and other grain the year round there should be no delay in supplying the demand.
 l.. c. Jennings of the Southern Bell Telephone company and T. Park Hay, lJr., secretary of the committee on az Iriculture and marketing of Birming- ham, having made careful survey jointly of 'the influence and advan- tages of county eleY ators," with view of promoting and encouraging in Alabama towns certain enter prises," report withSf Informing detail lin favor of a distinct forward move ment along the line eferred to, These paragraphs from tho report are of compelling interest:
 In order to form an intelligent opin- | ion it was thought advisable to secure the sentiment of the producers them selves As a basis for this survey it was decided to draw a comparison | between two south Alabama counties, both of which have been heavy pro- l ducers of cotton, ond of them nav ing an elevator and the other with 1 out any facilities of this nature other l than a few corn shelters scattered l throughout the community. The coun- ties in which the survey was made
 are Houston where an elevator is To-
 cated at Dothan, and Dale county, ad-
 joining Houston, where elevator facili-
 ties have not been developed.
 Through the cooperation of the county farm demonstration agent list of 50 of the largest farmers in each
 county was compiled About 30 names
 from the list of 5G farmers were
 selected at random. irrespective Of their location, and what they pro- duced
 The talks with Houston county 1 farmers show that nearly all of them
 have been selling corn to the Dothhn
 elevator, and with only one exception
 did we find anyone who did not re- port a very satisfactory price received for his corn.
 In Dale county we found put New 1 farmers who were growing corn for
 the market, because as they stated
 there is no market for corn at ozark,
 the logical market center for that
 county.
 Later in the day in our rounds we
 found corn growers W no reported the almost amazing fact that they hao
 been forced to go to Ozark and trade
 their corn in among the merchants In
 exchange for merchandise. In this pro-
 cess of trade they estimated that Tn
 view of the profit the merchants were
 entitled to make on their goods, the
 farmer got about 80 or 90 cents bushel
 for his corn. Under elevator condi-
 tions the farmers have been getting l. from s145 to s1SO per bhshel.
 When we stop and realize that south Alabama has been guilty of drawing corn from Kansas and Illinois and then see the effect of the 'cash mar
 ket" idea operating advantageously
 at Dothan in a small way, it cannot
 help but convince us that marketing is
 more than the sale and distribution of
 diversified crops, but is also factor
 that largely controls production itself.
 The business man of vision as well as the farmer, would be able to ap- preciate the value of the elevator as a community asset without especiai investigation; but with an actual sur vey such as MT. Jennings and MT. Hay have made the situation becomes absolutely clear and the conclusion : reached should result in the construc- tion of many elevators this year. The cost is comparatively small Each elevator would prove a highly 7 profitable investment from every point lof view.