S i _> READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



season. During April and May the farmers find their shipments 

 are very much larger than the regular retail customers in the 

 cities are able to receive. How to dispose of this surplus without 

 demoralizing the conditions of the regular market has given rise 

 to different experiments. Some communities have been able to 

 send their surplus to jobbing firms, and because of good will 

 already established realize more than the regular market price 

 on such surplus shipments. Where the ^quality has become 

 known to many consumers in the city, -it has sometimes been 

 possible to distribute surplus supplies among retailers other than 

 those who are regular patrons. 



Still another plan has been considered recently by some of 

 the local associations. This contemplates the storage of surplus 

 supplies locally. Thus far, however, no method has been devised 

 sufficiently safe to encourage storage to any considerable extent. 

 Until new light is shed on the ways and means of storing eggs, 

 it is doubtful if local farmers' associations will find it profitable 

 to attempt such a course. 



In working up a market for local shipments we thus have 

 two sets of problems : first, those connected with the disposal 

 of a regular supply throughout the year ; and, second, those re- 

 garding the disposal of added amounts during the season of 

 surplus. The task of working up a regular market to be supplied 

 throughout the year usually requires considerable time. The ad- 

 vice of those whose experience entitles them to be heard inva- 

 riably is to go slowly. Good market connections cannot be 

 established in a month or a season. They must be built up 

 gradually. So far as the care of the surplus is concerned the 

 best experience thus far seems to point to a temporary extension 

 of direct city retail trade and, more often, special shipments to 

 jobbers. 



The extent to which local communities may succeed in attempt- 

 ing egg- marketing according to the direct method can perhaps 

 best be appreciated by referring to the experiences and achieve- 

 ments of three localities in Minnesota. 



In 1908 a private firm in a town of east central Minnesota 

 began handling eggs in connection with its creamery business. 



