25G NEBKASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



advanced. When wholesale prices fall, by informal understanding, the 

 retail prices are frequently held at the old rates; or, if not, they lag 

 greatly behind the falling wholesale prices. This is one of the circum- 

 stances which cause a wide margin between the price the farmer receives 

 and that the consumer pays. 



Under any system of distribution there will be a certain percentage 

 of loss for perishable articles, and this fact results in a wider margin 

 between the two than would otherwise be the case. However, when 

 we consider the very wide margin which now often exists it is evident 

 that the cost of distribution is excessive. I have no doubt that many 

 delegates to this conference could furnish illustrative instances from 

 his own locality. Therefore I confine my statements to type cases. 

 For some of the relatively permanent products the margin between the 

 producer and the consumer can be diminished by only a moderate amount. 

 For instance, in the case of cheese, which, according to Professor H. C. 

 Taylor, may bring the farmers in Wisconsin eleven to thirteen cents a 

 pound, may sell in the South and West in different seasons of the year 

 from twenty to twenty-five and even thirty cents a pound. There is an 

 average margin of about ten cents between the Wisconsin prices and 

 the retail prices. This amount covers paraffining, storage, profits of the 

 original buyer, the wholesaler, the retailer and transportation. While 

 perhaps the service performed by these agencies can not be secured 

 by other means at a greatly reduced cost, it may be possible by proper 

 methods to reduce the margin by two or three cents per pound; and 

 even if this were done it would mean an increased income to the farmers 

 of twenty per cent or more and a much larger percentage of profit 

 above the actual cost to them. 



With vegetables and fruits the situation is very different. Governor 

 Francis E. McGovern in a recent message to the legislature of Wisconsin 

 mentioned the fact that at one time when the farmers were Felling pota- 

 toes for thirty cents a bushel at the railway station in Waupaca 

 county, the consumers in the city of Milwaukee were paying eighty-five 

 cents a bushel. The expense of shipping was six and one-half cents a 

 bushel. This made the amount which went to the dealers between the 

 producer and the consumer ;;rty-eight and one-half cents, or a margin 

 of 133 per cent above cost. G /ernor McGovern gives as another instance 

 that cabbages which were seli ig at $83 a ton at River Falls, Wisconsin, 

 were selling at $300 a ton ii Chicago. The freight between the two 

 points was $3. Thus the co nmission merchant and the retailer in 

 Chicago received as a margin $ 217 a ton, or 250 per cent beyond cost. 



Last autumn a gentleman shipped a carload of apples from Missouri 

 to Madison, Wisconsin, which he sold to the wholesaler at $1 per hun- 

 dredweight, or fifty cents a bushel. The wholesaler to whom he disposed 

 of the apples sold (hem for seventy-five cents a hushcl and (he retailer 

 sold at $1.25 a bushel. The amount which tlie wholesaler and retaih"' 

 took at Madison was, therefore, seventy-five cents per bushel, or 150 per 

 cent above the amount which the producer received for raising the 



