Page Six 



THE I. A. A. RECORD 



Roadside Marketing 



Needs Organization 



Tom Delohery Urges Farmer to 

 Consumer Direct Selling 



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cCTpHE time has come when organi- 

 ■*- zatton is necessary not only to 

 future growth but to the future protection 

 of the business of roadside marketing 

 by real farmers," according to Tom 

 Delohery, editor and publisher of "The 

 Farmer- Salesman," a new periodical 

 published at the Exchange Bldg., U. S. 

 Yards, Chicago, in the interest of 

 farmer-to-consumer-direct marketing. 

 "Roadside marketing is a farmer's proj- 

 ect," he says, "so is selling farm eggs, 

 but there are, I believe, more non- 

 farmers than farmers selling at roadside 

 markets, and the hucksters, being good 

 salesmen, are harvesting many dollars, 

 but at the same time are wrecking the 

 chances of the honest individual farmer. 

 "In Cook county, for instance, I be- 

 lieve there are as many hucksters as 

 there are farmer-owned roadside stands. 

 They are here today and gone tomor- 

 row. The customer gets stung and 

 leaves off buying in the country. He 

 knows his corner storeman is honest 

 even though his stuff may not be of as 

 good quality and prices higher. 



More Competition 



"Moreover, the surplus producing 

 areas of fruits and vegetables, for in- 

 stance, are shipping to all big and small 

 cities. Knowing it doesn't pay to ship 

 poor quality, they grade and ship the 

 best. The nearby farmer hauls in 

 everything and takes what he can get. 

 At the same time the good roads he 

 asked for years ago, and got recently, 

 have been stretched out into the coun- 

 try so that other districts which didn't 

 produce these crops now can do so and 

 shoot them in by fast trucks. More 

 and more competition; but as one man 

 expressed it, 'while the trucks are go- 

 ing in to provide competition, private 

 families are riding out in the country 

 where they will buy if the farmer had 

 enough sense to sell them.' 



Need High Standards 



"The co-operation I can see is in 

 buying supplies. Small item, but a big 

 one in the end. Most of all, however, 

 is the association sign, which with 

 proper publicity, will tell the customer 

 that members of the organization put 

 up only the best, and that they stand 

 back of the guarantee as to quality as 

 impHed by the insignia. 



"This thing has been done in other 

 sections with good results. County 

 agents, for the most part, have been 

 sponsors of the idea, although business 

 men, recognizing the plight of the 



State Dairymen 



Hope to Ban Oleo 



State Institutions Urged to Use 



Butter and Help Farmer 



Taxpayers 



W. S. O'HnIr 



farmer, have taken a hand. 



"Other county agents believe their 

 job marketing, but when figures show 

 that roadside markets, for instance, 

 add from 2 5 to 200 and 300 per cent 

 above wholesale to the growers' income, 

 it seems to me that the job of produc- 

 tion ought to be shared with the job of 

 teaching and boosting marketing. 

 Every town of 5,000 and over has room 

 for such markets; every town which 

 buys any of its farm products outside 

 afford local farmers the opportunity of 

 a sideline that will pay him well with 

 no extra labor. This has been proven; 

 it is not my personal contention. 



"The idea of the Farmer-Salesman is 

 to pass along to other farmers the ideas 

 and practices which have worked suc- 

 cessfully for others. Like many other 

 things, it takes a life-time to learn this 

 or that; whereas, one man may have 

 found it out years before. 



"The big income is from local trade 

 driving out to the stands or farms. 

 They do it around Chicago; will do it 

 other places and there seems no limit 

 to the variety of things people will 

 buy." 



Minutes More Prompdy 



As a result of action taken by the 

 I. A. A. board of directors in its July 

 meeting. County Farm Bureaus will be 

 supplied hereafter with a preliminary 

 report of the proceedings of each board 

 meeting at the same time members of 

 the board are furnished this informa- 

 tion. 



Heretofore the sending out of the 

 minutes of board meetings has been 

 delayed until after their approval at the 

 following meeting of the board. It is 

 understood that such preliminary re- 

 ports will be subject to later approval. 



WS. O'HAIR, president of the 

 • lUinois State Dairymen's As- 

 sociation, reports progress in that or- 

 ganization's efforts to influence the 

 state institutions of Illinois to use but- 

 ter rather than oleomargarine in their 

 dining rooms. According to a recent 

 statement by Rodney Brandon, director 

 of the Department of Public Welfare, 

 state institutions are using approxi- 

 mately 1,000,000 lbs. of oleomargarine 

 annually. The Soldiers' Home at Dan- 

 ville, Illinois, which until recently used 

 about 25,000 lbs. of margarine a year, 

 is now using butter instead. 



"We are putting on an educational 

 campaign in several counties with the 

 farmers, grocers and business men," 

 writes Mr. O'Hair. "And in several 

 towns the grocers are putting butter 

 up as a leader, leaving off oleomargarine. 

 This is being tried out for a period of 

 four months. 



Oleo Worst Enemy 



"Oleomargarine is the worst enemy 

 American agriculture has today," con- 

 tinued Mr. O'Hair. "It is being sold 

 from 9 to 22 cents a pound to cus- 

 tomers over our entire country. Chain 

 stores are selling it and forcing the 

 home merchants to sell it from 1 to 3 

 cents profit, while in many places, the 

 most popular chain stores are not sell- 

 ing butter at all. 



"Investigations we have made since 

 January 1 reveal that farmers are using 

 better than JO per cent of the oleomar- 

 garine sold in Illinois. Our whole milk 

 producers are the chief users of oleo. 

 In one whole milk district alone I was 

 told that 90 per cent of the families 

 are using oleomargarine and cooking 

 oils, in spite of the fact that their milk 

 had gone down over $1 a hundred. 



"The Soldiers' Home in Danville is 

 using 60,000 lbs. of oleomargarine, and 

 the state of Illinois is buying a million 

 pounds of the cheap 9 cents a pound 

 margarine to feed the unfortunates in 

 the state institutions. i 



Dairy Cattle Slaughtered 



"Oleomargarine, forcing down the 

 price of butterfat, has caused millions 

 of dollars worth of dairy cattle to be 

 slaughtered, and this meat, providing 

 cheap beef, coming in competition with 

 the cattle feeders, has assisted in under- 

 mining their business. The foreign 

 vegetable oils manufactured into cook- 

 ing oils have damaged the hog market 

 Continutd on page 10, col. 3) 



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