The Little River news., 1920-07-21
COOPERATIVE MARKETING MEANS
 BETTER PRODUCTION.

The increased price, or the larger net returns from the cooperative mar keting of farm products has been
 given undue prominence. No doubt
 better prices have been received and
 these may have been and probably
 were amply sufficint to make the eff forts profitable, but the indirect re- suits are even more valuable.
 Better marketing and especially CO., operative marketing is the greatest aid to better production. When pro- duct from several farms is pooled or marketed collectively, the quality of the individual farmers product and the specific defects which it may have are brought to the attention of the producer in the most forceful way possible. He suffers a reduction in price, and the fact that his neighbors receive a better price on the same market and under identical conditions drives home the lesson that the quail ity and condition of a product deter mine largely it's market value. When he markets his product separately he may excuse or explain a lower price on the ground that the market was off the day he sold, or that some prejudice or combination was responsible for his failue to get as much as received by a neighbor, but if his product is marketed along with that of his neigh bor by the s/le person and under id entical market conditions and brings lower price, and this s repeated, a few times the lesson is surely driven home that the quality or condition of the product is responsible for the diff erence 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 effective means of securing the production of better products and the putting of them in the best condi- tion to mee market demands.
 But perhaps still more important result of community or cooperative marketing is the force which it ex- erts toward securing uniformity in va riety and kind of products.
 The statement is often made that it is of great value to any community to produce the same variety of kind of product and in large quantity. For instance, a half dozen men pool their cotton crops, The fifty bales are marketed together, but of course each bale is sold on it's own merits. There may be one bale that at persent would bring seventy-five 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 reasons why his neighbours bale brought seventy five cents or one dollar a pound, sep arately for thirty cents and heard that his neighbor got one dollar pound. He learns that there is difference in the cotton besides it's color and free- dom from dirt, ana the length and quality of staple play a part. The re- suit is that he is lekely to try the var iety which brings the much better price for his neighbor, and this CO., operative or collective marketing in short time is likely to lead to the com arriving at conclusion as to what are the best varieties to grow on their soils and in their section. The advantages to the farmers in a community or county growing similar varieties of cotton, corn and other crops, raising the same breeds of live stock, and in putting their products on the market in uniform condition and quality and those who have not learn lective marketing surely teaches it.
 These lessons of the value of unfor- mity, quality and quantity in the pro- ducts marketed are worth much more to the farmers of the South than any increase in price which they will re- ceive through cooperative marketing, even though we admit the fact that the direct increase in price alone is suffi- cient to make such marketing desir- able-The Progressive Farmer,
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