The log cabin Democrat., 1921-12-01
MARKETING HOLDS FATE OF FARMERS ADDRESS BYlDEAN KNAPP Must Distrivute to Advantage of All,
 Says Leader Laney on
 Potato Culture.

l Arkansas produces twice the wealth of Iowa, yet we are poor and they are rich, Dean Bradford Knapp of the college of agriculture declared in opening his address last night at the Conway Commercial Club. "It's all in the system of distribution" he asserted in concluding his impressive and convincing discourse on the dis | tribution of farm products as the de- termining factor in the welfare of ] any community, state or secretion. Although Dean Knapp has been heard here before in splendid addresses, he surpassed previous efforts. As he explained to his audience, he has just returned from extensive travels and has much ''new dope" to reinforce his handling of farm subjects. w. H. Laney, marketing expert, also spoke to the club, having sweet potatoes as his special subject.
 The dean of the farm forces went poverty. "For 50 years" he said, i've have followed the speculative system in agriculture Then we have permitted to grow up the most mis- erable system of cotton marketing in the world. l say miserable because it brings less to the producer than any other system possibly could. One county I noticed had 14 cotton buyers and produced a crop of 60,000 bales, and another had 12 cotton buyers to handle it's crop of 15,000 bales.'
 Cooperative marketing as the me- dium of prosperity was strikingly it. ! lustrated by Dean Knapp in speaking of Denmark and California, which he has observed. Both have the same system of marketing and have come ! up from poverty to comparative wealth. While on a visit to Den mark, he inspected cooperative packing plant founded and operated ] by 5000 farmers, who borrowed be- tween $100,000 and $125,000 for it's construction. Dean Knapp was much impressed by the Copenhagen banker, who declared he made the loan with only the signatures of the 5000 as security because they pledged their hogs for ten years, and he was sure such an enterprise would succeed.
 In California, the dean said, only two per cent of the raisin crop is grown under mortgage, and it has proved the salvation of the country ''Get away with the mortgage sys- tenn and solve the problem of distri- button" Dean Knapp said, "and you will see prosperity. No one ever saw the California raisin growers send one crate of raisins too many to Con- way, and no one ever saw Armour send too much meat to New Orleans. They regulate those things, but Ark ansas sweet potato growers used to send potatoes to Kansas City until the market was glutted while per haps other cities did without"
 On the cotton situation, Dean Knapp declared in favor of the in- ternal pool which is being operated in other states, and the success it has attained. Such a pool is handled by capable directors and is actively in charge of experts, its aim being to market cotton to best advantage and distribute the profits to those pool ing according to their holdings. He told of the spread of this movement, and of the relief felt by some farmers who have thus been relieved of mark eting, their biggest problem.
 Associations directing these pools can have members, farmers, tenants, and landlords who take their rents in cotton. Where the mortgage re- leases a tenant, the association will accept his cotton and hold lien to guarantee payment of the obligation. It is similar to the cooperative un- ion of rice growers, which Dean Knapp said has 80 per cent of the rice acreage in Arkansas signed up.
 MT. Laney as one of the men or ganizing the sweet potato growers and developing their cultivation re- lated to the club how the farm dem- onstration forces started the business of cooperative marketing and how it HdS resulted III larger ploillo 1oi tiic growers. It is the one crop, he said, which did not show price decline last year, which he took as an indi- cation of strong demand in excess of the supply. Twenty-siX such CO., operative organizations have been formed in Arkansas and are shipping or preparing to ship an estimated production of 250 bushels. Four curing houses were built the first year and 36 the second year the plan was in operation.
 Shipments by carloads offer the only profitable system of marketing, 1 Mir. Lanev said. and a curing house