EXTENSION DIVISION. 251 



The tentative legislation to states not already having marketing laws 

 as recommended by the United States Bnrean of Markets, is that of the 

 Michigan outline. Partisan political bias which has been the occasion of 

 much bitterness in several states has been avoided. There is not so much 

 opposition to marketing reforms and better service as lack of working- 

 plans therefore. 



The advocacy of cooperation and the refusal to cooperate with all the 

 agencies of the state and nation is a limitation resulting from limited in- 

 formation. 



Much confusion arises from the failure to classify farm products as 

 those whose form must be changed before consumers use, and those in 

 form such as the citrus fruits which are susceptible of successful direct 

 marketing. The great farm staples such as grain, textiles, meats, and a 

 large portion of the fruits and vegetables have to be manufactured or 

 put through a process before they are ready for the consumer. An ex- 

 amination of the stocks found in retail grocery stores usually discloses 

 that 90% of the goods are changed in form by manufacturing and approx- 

 imately 10% have not been. When the producer has parted with the raw 

 material that reappears as butter, cheese, canned goods, cereals, cured 

 meats, soap, etc., etc., he has sold these products as raw material. 

 When these are aggregated, and with these are associated say 10% in 

 value of potatoes, vegetables, etc., to be sold in the form produced, the 

 question arises at once as to whether the sale of the last named in asso- 

 ciation with the manufactured goods is not perhaps as economical in dis- 

 tribution as if sold directly alone. The agency of direct marketing is 

 open to everyone who has goods to sell and can find a bu^^er. All estab- 

 lished city markets are at his disj^osal. All these fields have been culti- 

 vated by the United States in the possible service to be rendered by the 

 parcels post. The various express companies have endeavored to handle 

 and build this trade at no cost but that of transportation. In spite of all 

 this, the volume is small and is a negligible factor at present. The ex- 

 perience of individual cooperative associations and even the activities of 

 the states have not found direct marketing successful. The wholesale 

 grocer is in one sense like the producer in having goods for sale. With 

 standardized goods, credit reports and all the machinery of business, he 

 has not been able to dispense with salesmen. The best information ob- 

 tainable indicates that it is possible to market less than ten per cent of 

 farm grown i)roducts directly, and this amount in practice is decreased 

 because of remoteness from market and because of small units. 



While perfection is far away, it does not seem good marketing marks- 

 manship to devote overmuch effort on the smallest units of output. Un- 

 organized agriculture is individually selling unappraised products, to a 

 well posted body of buyers. Efiicipncy in buying so as to increase the 

 l^rofits is a part of the organization of buyers. Edwin Hurley of the Fed- 

 eral Trade Commission has pointed out that the greatest menace to busi- 

 ness is the business man who does not know what it costs to do business. 

 Agriculture being basic, in the sense of the starting point for so much of 

 manufactured goods, has wide variations as to unit or pound or bushel 

 cost. Seasonable variations are influences to be reckoned with. The acre 

 cost in agriculture is an easier measure to the farmer, of cost, and less 

 variable, but an unknown and impossible standard for the buyer to use. 

 It is this lack of common meeting grounds for the producers to act as a 

 unit and the different denominators of cost measure, which to the grower 



