CHAPTER V. 



THE MIDDLEMAN IN AGRICULTURE. 1 



In a primitive state of society the tiller of the ground may 

 find a direct and immediate market for his produce ; but 

 where the consumers are aggregated in cities it is 

 obvious that there must be some machinery for bringing 

 the products of the soil to them from greater or less 

 distances. So soon as agricultural produce leaves the 

 farm on its way to the ultimate consumer it begins to incur 

 costs of distribution, but the term " costs of distribution ' 

 bears a wide meaning, and consequently it is not so easy 

 as it may at first sight appear to define strictly who may 

 be included under the designation of " middlemen " in 

 agriculture. 



The expense 01 conveyance from the farm to the market 

 no doubt comes primarily under the head of cost of dis- 

 tribution, and it is fair to class railway companies and 

 others who control the carrying agencies of the country 

 among middlemen. 



But setting aside the carrying agencies, and treating 

 the term " middlemen " as applying mainly to a person 

 who actually handles and obtains a profit from the hand- 

 ling of the produce, it is noteworthy to how small an 

 extent the average farmer comes into direct contact with 

 the consumer for any class of produce which he has to 

 dispose of. No doubt the smaller occupiers, especially 

 where they live in contiguity to centres of population, do to 

 a considerable extent even now dispose of such products 

 as poultry, butter, and eggs, without the intervention of 

 any distributor. In such a town, for instance, as Preston, 



1 Journal Royal Agricultural Society, Vol. IV., 3rd series, 1893. 



