550 TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 



most satisfactory markets are those where products are sold on consign- 

 ment and after inspection, for in these the producer must carry all the 

 market risk with no means of shifting or insuring against it; they are 

 also the ones in which the tactical position of the sellers is the weakest, 

 for they are forced sellers. Whenever accepted standards of grading are 

 possible and established they make possible both different methods of mar- 

 keting and methods of shifting the risk under prevailing methods. 



Consumption. In the final analysis the desires of the ultimate consumer 

 of meats and animal by-products and his willingness or ability to satisfy 

 those desires determines the price of animals at the markets. In order, 

 then, that a supply of live stock can be best marketed, dependable infor- 

 mation must be had as to the desires and the willingness and ability to 

 satisfy these of these ultimate consumers. The gathering of this informa- 

 tion should include: 



(a) A study of the statistics of consumption. This should include the 

 monthly and seasonable consumption of different kinds of fresh and cured 

 meats and meat products; the monthly and seasonable movement of meats 

 and animals for immediate slaughter from the surplus markets and the 

 killing establishments located there to the important centers of consump- 

 tion; the importance of different consumptive regions and centers in tak- 

 ing surplus supplies and the markets from which and the routes by which 

 this surplus goes into these. 



(b) A study of the movement of non-edible by-products into utilization 

 channels and of the finished products into consumption and of the various 

 industrial and financial conditions that influence both demands. 



(c) A study of the consumptive competition between different kinds of 

 meats and between edible animal products and other kinds of foods. 

 There can be no orderly marketing of one kind of meat animals without 

 relation to the marketing of other kinds because the desire of meat con- 

 sumers to satisfy their demands at the lowest price — to get the most for 

 their money — ^results in a continuous competition among different kinds of 

 meats and tends to bring about something of an equality of price as be- 

 tween similar qualities; in the same way other foods, and especially those 

 of a substitutable character, compete with meats for consumptive flavor, 

 and especially is this true with a large element of the population when 

 economic and industrial conditions put food purchases on a subsistence 

 basis. 



(d) A study of the effects of both the exportation and importation of 

 meats and animal products and of animals for slaughter on domestic 

 prices. 



(e) A study of the effects of weather conditions, of religious and social 

 observances and customs on the demand for meats, and the comparative 

 importance of such factors in various important consumptive markets; also 

 of the relations between industrial and financial conditions and general 

 tendencies of consumption and especially as between conditions in certain 

 industries and consumptive centers and the demands for particular kinds 

 and grades of meats. 



That covers, in a general way, how the problems that might be deter- 

 mined in trying to get a better distribution of live stock and meat prod- 



