REPORT OF BUREAU OF MARKETING AND SUPPLIES. 89 



REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF MARKETING AND 



SUPPLIES. 



To Hon. W. T. Guptill, Commissioner: 



In taking up the work of this Bureau in the midseason of 

 191 5 I was somewhat handicapped, owing to the attitude of 

 my predecessor who has apparently striven to discredit any 

 further work emanating from this office. I wish to say, how- 

 ever, that, on (the whole, my relations with the managers and 

 members of the Farmers' Unions have been very pleasing and 

 I have found them ever ready to render valuable assistance. 



Everybody will agree that we can improve our farming, and 

 our farmers have realized for years that the real farm ques- 

 tion in America is not to produce more, but to sell at better 

 advantage zvhat is produced. This means better business, not 

 only for the farmers but for the merchant and manufacturers 

 as well, for the earth, with its mineral and agricultural store, is 

 the basis of all wealth, and upon the success of the farmer 

 depends the happiness and prosperity of the Nation, 



Some advocate, as a panacea for the farmers' troubles, in- 

 creased production, but what we really need is a better system 

 of marketing and exchange ; a better system of buying and 

 selling. Farmers have been working at this problem, but 

 usually each man for himself. In the problem of marketing, 

 of finding a buyer, it is the consensus of opinion that agricul- 

 ture is in a bad way. So common are the instances that it is 

 hardly worth while to cite cases where the consumers have 

 paid fancy prices for an article of food while the farmers, 

 fifty miles away, have this same article and no market for it. 

 Thus we see that our system of distribution is radically wrong. 

 In the marketing of farm products it is necessary to have some 

 intermediary agent, or agents, between the producer and the 

 consumer, either in the form of brokers, commission men or 

 some other agency. The methods practiced bv many of these 

 agencies and the small returns, compared with the prices the 



