246 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



HOW THE EXPORT TRADE MAY BE BUILT UP — THE IMPORTANCE OF 



ADVERTISING. 



Granted that the preliminaries to a thriving export trade are 

 provided — good steamship lines, good exchange, and the like — it 

 then remains to show the foreign buyer what we have from the 

 standpoint of individuality, to prove to his own satisfaction the 

 worth of American breeding stock. To this end, a thorough cam- 

 paign of education and exploitation is necessary. Through Ameri- 

 can consuls, literature can be distributed, setting forth the merits 

 of our animals. By advertising and by correspondence, using for- 

 eign newspapers as freely as possible, the same end can be accom- 

 plished. One attempt should not be regarded as sufficient, but 

 breeders should hammer away at the same point until an opening 

 is effected. It might pay breeders' associations to club together, 

 as it were, and employ a good wide-awake man as a commercial 

 agent to be stationed, say at Rio Janeiro or Buenos Ayres, to solicit 

 trade, handle importations, manage sales, and attend to the thou- 

 sand and one details which would come up in connection with such 

 a position. On account of his familiarity with local conditions, 

 such a man could be of the greatest assistance to the American 

 exporter, and could save him many a troublesome experience. By 

 pooling expenses, the burden of his support would be only nominal 

 to any one association entering into the arrangement. One of the 

 strongest features of this plan of selling would be its semi-official 

 character. Working under the auspices of reputable breeders' asso- 

 ciations certified by the United States Secretary of Agriculture, 

 selling animals, whose pedigrees were also certified by the Secre- 

 tary of Agriculture, the American seller could give his customers 

 every assurance that they would get value received and honest 

 dealing. 



Experimental shipments of first-class animals, such as have 

 already been made by several Americans, are of the greatest value 

 in showing stockmen in other countries what kind of live stock the 

 United States produces. Sent to a foreign country under compe- 

 tent care, and landed in good condition, they will be almost certain 

 to create a good impression and stimulate trade. 



A further means of education can be obtained by an effort to 

 bring the representatives of foreign countries in the United States 

 into touch with our live stock interests. Once or twice this has 

 been tried, with rather indifferent success. If we could get foreign 



