200 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



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expenses of distribution and transportation. Yet it is com- 

 mon to criticise middlemen without discrimination. A quart 

 of milk or a pound of butter at the farm in Maine has as much 

 nutritive value as on the consumer's table in the suburbs of 

 Boston, but its commercial value at the farm in Maine is 

 almost nothing until to the expense of production has been 

 added the expense of transportation and distribution. With 

 these thre6, the product at the consumer's door has a greatly 

 enhanced commercial value. And it seems to me that a reason- 

 able number of middlemen and of transportation companies are 

 necessary, and even entitled to be considered as producers. 

 There is much confusion of thought concerning conditions 

 where a producer retails his own product. If he is situated 

 so favorably as to distribute what he raises, say, market milk, 

 directly to the consumers, does it not cost him something for 

 his time or the time of his hired man in delivering the milk, 

 and for the wear and tear of team, bottling, the loss in bottles, 

 and the bookkeeping? If the producer combines the function 

 of retailer with that of producer, the larger amount of money 

 that he receives is for production and also for distribution. 

 That larger sum may mean no more income to him as a pro- 

 ducer. A man doing two kinds of business should make more 

 money than if he has only one business. If he does not get 

 enough more for the milk or butter to pay the cost of distribu- 

 tion and a little profit on that, he would be better off to whole- 

 sale his product. Not long since I read a, newspaper article 

 urging butter producers in the vicinity of our large cities to 

 retail their product directly to consumers, the article saying 

 that "the producer could get 5 cents a pound more for his 

 butter and in many cases his wife could do the work of deliv- 

 ering it." It seems to me that that way of looking at the case 

 is entirely fallacious; if the wife delivers the butter an allow- 

 ance should be made for her time and for the use of the team ; 

 as a sound business proposition it is entirely wrong to say that 

 the farmer "gets 5 cents" extra for his butter" because his wife 

 delivers it. I should like to see consumer and producer brought 

 nearer together to reduce the expense of transportation and 

 distribution. If there is a profit in distribution I should like 

 to see the farmer get some of that as well as any profit there 

 may be in production. But some one has got to distribute the 



