124 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



It is said that Troy, New York, receives its milk supply from 

 New York City. With a favorable season and a bountiful harvest 

 in Kansas, Minnesota cabbage, Washington apples, Texas onions. 

 New Jersey peas and corn, Wisconsin butter and cheese are staple 

 articles of diet in Manhattan. 



Iowa does not produce as much wheat as her people eat, yet 

 she ships out of the state one-fourth of what she produces and 

 buys back several times this amount. 



The farmers of the south ship live cattle from 300 to 

 500 miles to St. Louis, and buy back beef sides shipped in. refrig- 

 erator cars, with icing charges added. 



The farmer has lost whatever interest he had in the town 

 and the town man has lost his interest in the country. There is 

 nothing truer than that the country and the town are independent 

 while they should be interdependent. The man in the town should 

 be as much interested in the development of the country, and in 

 providing a good market for what is produced locally, as he is in 

 developing the streets, parks and schools of his town, and as he is 

 in establishing new industries in the town. 



In Kansas City they are conducting a campaign to educate 

 the people of that city and of the regions around about to use 

 Kansas City made products. Do you suppose they have thought 

 the proposition through far enough to include in that campaign 

 a suggestion that their own people give preference to those things 

 that are grown in these regions? In short, are they willing to 

 meet us half way by buying our products if we buy theirs? 



How much of the yearly business of the local grocer originates 

 in, the locality in which he does business? How much of it comes 

 from a hundred miles away, and how much from five hundred 

 miles away? It would surprise you to know how small a part of 

 what is consumed in your town is produced in your county, and I 

 know you do not realize how much of what is locally grown is 

 shipped out of the community and similar material grown else- 

 where is shipped in. This is not wholly and perhaps not chiefly 

 the fault of the merchant. It is really the fault of the producer 

 and the consumer quite as much as of the merchant. 



We are all creatures of habit. Convenience weighs heavily 

 with us. The local merchant or the local consumer has no inherent 

 objection to patronizing the local producer. In fact, if his atten- 

 tion were called to it, he really would prefer to do so, all things 

 being equal. But the local producer cannot expect the merchant 



