MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 407 



lack of system, by which his goods go to market. In a recent bulletin 

 issued by Secretary Wilson on this subject. the following strong lan- 

 guage is used: "To anyone who will take the trouble to make even a 

 cursory examination of the markets of any of our large cities, it will 

 be evident that there is ample room for improvement in the manner of 

 marketing farm produce. A very little additional inquiry into the sub- 

 ject will reveal a condition of things which, involving as it does a 

 waste of material and labor on the part of the producer aggregating 

 an enormous loss, may be described without exaggeration as dis- 

 astrous." The writer of the above declines to discuss the present or- 

 ganization of the trade, but taking things as they are he proceeds to 

 emphasize his statement by a recital of some cold facts. 



Individual farmers often make mistakes both in shipping on their 

 own account and in selling to local buyers, and by using barrels and 

 packages larger or smaller than the accepted standard or of a different 

 form find their generous measure shrink to regulation size on the "re- 

 turns " and their undersized or unusual package heavily discounted. 

 All through the season instances may be found daily in all our great 

 markets which indicate unmistakably a lack on the part of packer and 

 shipper of acquaintance with the conditions which attend transporta- 

 tion of produce and with the demands of the market. 



It is the utter lack of intelligent system at the shipping point that 

 brings these unprofitable results. The local buyer, as a rule, makes 

 no effort to provide a better system or educate the farmer. The smart, 

 self-sufficient farmer or shipper need not felicitate himself that he is 

 not harmed by this state of things — that only the careless and ignorant 

 are losers. This is a narrow view of the matter. The results of such 

 imperfect trade conditions reach far beyond the unfortunate shipments 

 first affected. The local buyer loses on some of his purchases, and 

 therefore must have a wider margin on all. A confused condition of 

 consignments makes extra work to sort, rearrange, repack and sell 

 damaged goods, and commissions must be high enough to pay the 

 extra help. These losses and others of similar nature fall on all ship- 

 pers alike. But more than all this is the fact that goods sold at de- 

 preciated rates tend to depress the market for all grades. Purchasers, 

 after repeated disappointmentsin the effort to find a satisfactory article, 

 turn to other lines of goods or to those of foreign origin. 



When we see a farmer work early and late and eat the bread of 

 sorrow that he may buy expensive machinery only to subject it to such 

 treatment as will quietly destroy it ; when he winters his reaper in the 

 field and gathers his grain into a roofless barn ; when we see the 

 kitchen and dairy utensils scattered about and put to improper uses, 



