110 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 



are poorly supplied with the very things that might 

 be produced in the neighborhood in the greatest 

 abundance. 



With crops grown for distant shipment a distinc- 

 tion must be made between what are called staple 

 farm products and those, like fruits and vegetables, 

 that are of a perishable nature. The former crops, 

 like wheat, corn, cotton, etc., are usually sold at the 

 nearest shipping point either to local speculators or 

 to representatives of the great commercial interests 

 at prices fixed from day to day by their value in the 

 great world's markets and by the transportation 

 charges necessary to reach these markets. The price 

 received depends but little on the efforts of the 

 farmer and is only too often manipulated by the com- 

 mercial interests so that it shall be abnormally low at 

 the season that the crop is being marketed followed 

 by a marked rise as soon as the bulk of the crop has 

 passed out of the hands of the producers and before 

 it passes to the consumers. This constantly tempts 

 the grain and cotton farmer to turn speculator and to 

 hold his crop for a rise in value. 



Perishable crops, too, are often sold direct by the 

 farmer to produce merchants or local speculators. 

 Sales of such products at the point of production are 

 probably slowly increasing, but the risks attending 

 the handling and storing of such products are so 

 great that a very large part of the fruit and vege- 

 tables produced are shipped at the farmer's risk, and 

 are sold for his account on commission. This system 

 leaves the farmer entirely at the mercy of unscrupu- 

 lous commission men and, unfortunately, there are 



