100 



supply his wants, and we need not discuss the question 

 whether prices are reduced when wholesale purchases are 

 made, for it is self-evident that the less frequently products 

 are handled, whether in the shape of merchandize or 

 otherwise, the lower is their price, and the greater the 

 number of intermediate agencies, the more enhanced the 

 price. 



"Hence by association in the Grange the individual mem- 

 bers learn to unite their purses, and make at a single pur- 

 chase such a bill that the advantages of wholesale dealing 

 are enjoyed. Need we illustrate ? The grocer who asks 

 fourteen cents for his bacon has calculated the cost of 

 original purchase, freight, drayage, current expenses of 

 his business, handling and waste, and decides that a single 

 side can be profitably sold at fourteen cents. But if a 

 hogshead is wanted by the purchaser, the trouble, time 

 and cost of selling that amount is no more than the cost 

 of selling a single side, and frequently less, for there is 

 Je^s handling and often no drayage. Then, of course, if 

 a side of fifty pounds nets him but a cent a pound, or fifty 

 cents, the thousand pounds in the hogshead would net 

 him ten dollars in the same time. Well then might he 

 afford t.o sell for half a cent per pound less, for even in 

 that case he would be realizing upon the sale ten times as 

 much as he would upon the sale of a single side. And so 

 it runs through every department of trade. The merchant 

 has so systematized his business that he can tell the net 

 profit of every individual sale, and as his purpose is to 

 turn over his capital as rapidly and frequently as possible 

 that he may multiply his earnings, of course short profits 

 and quick exchanges are preferable to the reverse system. 

 The precepts of the Grange teach the farmer to endeavor 

 always to comply with this system of exchange, and wher- 

 ever Patrons are unable to appropriate its advantages, it 

 is their misfortune, and no fault of the Order of the Pat- 

 rons of Husbandry. 



"But it may be urged that if farmers become wholesale 



