The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-12-20
CITY IDEAL PLACE l. FOR DISTRIBUTION OF FARM PRODUCTS
State Supervisor Hooton .Advo- cates Big Farmers Exchange for Birmingham-DiStri-
 button Costly to Farmer

That the farmers of the state are losing thousands of dollars yearly through the lack of ade- quate distribution facilities and that there is no market center in the south that offers better op- portunities for the establish ment of a big farmers exchange than Birmingham is the state ment of F. o. Hooton, state su- pervisor of markets and Immi- grafton, in an interview given out last night.
 Mir. Hooton calls attention to the present means of distribution, which he contends tell against the Alabama farmer. and gives some figures on the cost, of transportation. MT. Hooton said:
 ''The big business world has been topsy -turvy since the great World war-a great season of inflated values OF everything-and abnormal condi- tions everywhere. Now a newcomer, 'Deflation,' steps in and joins Presi- oent-elect Harding in saying that we must~get back to 'normalcy,' or back to former levels of value. And, in some instances, we have gone back so fast that the point of normalcy has been lost. Especially is this true of many farm products that have tumbled be- yond the safety point.
 "Yet not all things that are ecO- nOmicalIy all wrong are charge
 
 transportation costs nnd faulty. uneconomic means of distribution have always been against the Ala balaa producer. We find today
 this condition in Birmingham in regard to sweet potatoes alone that from 12 to 15 cars are shipped here every week to be distributed and sold to the 3OO,OOO consumers in the great mineral district-- perhaps moro than 300 cars a sea son.
 "A large percentage of these are shipped from south Georgia and Florida, and the growers of these states get the same freight rate as the southeast Alabama growers-39h h cents per hundred, or around s120 per 1 car of So,000 pounds.
 To-day the farmer in south Ala bama or south Georgia is receiving from s11O to $1.25 per hundred for his graded potatoes or about SO cents per bushel. Then add the railroad 8 share, 40 cents per hundred the po- tato reaches the broker at a cost of $1.50 to $1.60 per hundred. The broker 1 in turn unloads and sacks the pota- toes at his warehouse and resells them 1 to the dealers and distributors for 1 $2.10 to $2,25 per hundred, receiving l practically as much and sometimes more than the farmer does in an oper- ation that only requires a few hours of the brokers time, while the pro
 queer gives much hard labor and must
 wait from four to six months to get hts money.
 The dealers of Birmingham then | retail the spuds to the consumer al
 a price ranging anywhere from 3h tc
 cents per pound, or from $3.50 to 5; per hundred. It is easy to see allowing for all ordinary cost of dam
 age and of handling, that this differ
 ence is too great and that the cost of | distribution Is something enormous. l The same thing may be said of other products.
 Such a condition leads one to this ! conclusion: How long can this
 So palpably uneconomic condition con- | tinue? It is up to the producers. They l can easily put an end to it if they ! wish. There is no market center in l the south that offers better oppor- | tunities for the establishment and sue
 cessfdl operation of a big farmers CO.,
 operative exchange than Birmingham