THE FARMER'S MARKET 97 



WHAT PER CENT. DOES THE FARMER GET ? 



I do not believe that farmers are entitled to more 

 than they ought to have, but there is a huge gap in most 

 of the necessities of life between the farmer's selling 

 price and the consumer's paying price. Perhaps an 

 illustration which will be best understood is that of 

 milk. The farmer in my part of the community gets 

 about 14 cents a gallon for his summer milk, the rail- 

 way charges, perhaps, are not to exceed 2 cents a gallon. 

 Good milk sells at retail in the city of Washington for 

 40 cents, common milk for 36 cents and certified milk 

 at 80 cents a gallon. A simple computation will show 

 that the farmer who spends all of his time and his talent 

 in producing ordinary milk, gets 33 per cent, of the 

 price the consumer pays for his product. The capital 

 invested in a milk distributing plant is extremely small 

 as compared with the capital invested in a farm and 

 dairy. The milk distributor turns his money over every 

 day ; the farmer gets one profit for the year. 



The picture indeed is dark, but there are some bright 

 spots in it. The farmer who sells wheat gets a much 

 larger part of the consumer's price than the farmer 

 who sells milk or cattle. In other words, the price of 

 flour is not by any means 70 per cent, higher than the 

 price of wheat, but this peculiar thing happens to the 

 farmers in my vicinity in regard to wheat. Loudoun 

 County, Virginia, is a great producer of wheat and 

 corn. As a rule the wheat is rushed into market soon 

 after it is thrashed, or within a short time thereafter. 

 As soon as the wheat crop is on the market there is al- 

 ways a very decided fall in prices. A tenant on one 

 of my farms last year sold his wheat for 84 cents a 

 bushel ; I kept my wheat, of no better quality, three or 



