The Leader, enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1915-1921, 1920-08-13
COOPERATIVE MARKET
ING MEANS BETTER
PRODUCTION

The increased price, or the
larger net returns from the CO.
operative marketing OF farm
products has been given undue
prominence. No doubt better
prices have been received and
these may have been and proba
bly, were amply sufficient to
make the efforts profitable, but
the indirect results are even more
valuable.
Better marketing and especial
ly cooperative marketing is the
greatest aid to better production.
When a product from several
farms is pooled or marketed col
lectively, the quality of the in
dividual farmers product and
the specific defects which it may
have are brought to the atten-
ton OF the producer in the most
forceful way possible. He suffers
reduction in price, and the fact
that his neighbors receive bet
ter price on the same market
and under Identical conditions
drives home the lesson that the
quality and condition of a prod
uct determine largely its mar
ket value. When he markets his
product separately he may ex-
cuse or explain lower price on
the ground that the market was
off the day he sold, or that some
prejudice or combination was re-
sponsible for his failure to get
as much as received by a neigh
Dor, but if his product is market
ed along with that of his neigh
Dor by the same person and I'M
der identical market conditions
and brings a lower price, and
this is repeated few times, the
lesson is surely driven home that
the quality or condition of the
product is responsible for the diff
ference in price received. This
effect surely comes and is driven
home with force no matter where
the grading is done. Collective
marketing is the one sure and eff
tective means OF securing the
production of better products and
the putting of them in the best
condition to meet market de-
mands.
But perhaps still more i'm
portant result of community or
cooperative marketing is the
force which it eXerts toward Sc
curing uniformity in variety and
kind of products.
The statement is often made
that it is of great value to anv
community to produce the same
variety or kind of product and in
large quantity. for instance, a
halt dozen men pool their cotton
crops. The fifty bales. are mar
keted together but of course each
) bale is sold on its own merits.
There may be one bale that al
present would bring seventy-hve
cents or one dollar a pound and
others that would bring thirty
cents, forty cents, and sixty cents
a pound. The man who sells the
bale for thirty cents is much
more likely to look into the rea-
sons why his neighbours bale
brought seventy-hve cents or one
dollar pound, under these con.
ditioNs, than if he sold his bale
separately for thirty cents anc
heard that his neighbor got one
dollar pound. He learns thai
there is a difference in the cottor
besides its color and freedom
from dirt, and the length anc
quality of staple play a part
The result is that he is likely
to try the variety which bring,
the much better price for hi.
neighbor, and this cooperative
or collective marketings in
short time is likely to lead to the
community's arriving at a con
Mclusion as to what are the bes
Varieties to grow on their soil.
and in their section. The advan