No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AdKICULTUUE. 495 



orgaTiijcatioii, have one trade mark and one stamp, and wlion they 

 pnt on a barrel or a box of a])i»les, it means somediinf^, jnst the same 

 as it does when they come from the west. Why, we farmers have as 

 many brands, as the western farmers have, and why can't we use 

 tliem? And T believe that the time is cominj? when we will use them. 



Another thing — T call yonr altontion to along this line of educa- 

 tion is the fact that oftentimes we dont know when and where to ship. 

 That is a serious obstacle, and here again I believe that the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture can be of great assistance to us in this work. 

 We should have on file at the Department at all times information 

 that will enable you farmers to know where and when to ship. Why, 

 you know it is a crime to ship products to one market until it is 

 glutted to that extent that they must take the apples or the potatoes 

 or the tomatoes or whatever it may be, out and dump them into the 

 river or the ocean. That condition ought not to obtain, and if we 

 had adequate marketing facilities and the right kind of information, 

 it would not obtain. There is just as much in knowing where and 

 when to sliij) as there is in producing the crop. We hear much about 

 supply and demand and undoubtedly that affects market prices, but 

 our marketing has been dump and demand, and I want to stop it. 

 Why, the farmers today are planting and sowing by faith, and they 

 reap in hope and they market by accident; and they have been doing 

 that right along, and now let us see if we cannot adopt a better 

 method, let us see if we cannot, by working together, Avork out a prob- 

 lem that will give to each man an honest share of what the harvest 

 yields. I am a firm believer in giving the producer of any commodity 

 an honest price for what he produces. I think if there is anybody 

 that ought to have the profit, it is the man who produces it and not 

 the man who hands it over to somebody else ; all toil, if it is honor- 

 able, should bring some recompense, and if we need assistance in this 

 work and men to give valuable aid, then they are entitled, then they 

 are entitled to some pay, but we can work out a system whereby we 

 can eliminate a lot of unnecessary so-called middle men. 



Now a great deal has been said about the middlemen and I am not 

 here this afternoon to make any cry against them. I want to say that 

 the system is wrong and not the men, and what we need is a different 

 system of marketing, and when we have that, we will not need to 

 worry about the middleman, he will be taken care of all right, and 

 with a system along the line that I have suggested, I am sure that we 

 will help solve this problem. 



One other thought comes to me, to show you the need of having 

 this information; I think it was two years ago last August that I 

 was in York county in a community where they i-aised a great many 

 potatoes, and, as I remarked, it was about the third of August. I 

 was at a little railroad station, I have forgotten the name of it, the 

 farmers were loading potatoes and I went out into the car where 

 they were loading them and asked one of the men what he was getting 

 for his potatoes, and he told me 50 cents a bushel, and I said ''Where 

 are you shipping them?" And he said "To Baltimore." Well, I said 

 "You will excuse me, but could von not find a better market than 

 Baltimore at this time of the year?" "Well." he said, "Wliy?" "Why," 

 I said, "Don't you know that they have potatoes in Baltimore weeks 

 ago and they have plenty of them today? Why not ship these pota- 

 toes north where they haven't yet come into the market ? When I left 



