162 AGRICULTURAL ORGANISATION 



possible prices should he be left to his own resources in 

 dealing with the middleman buyer. 



In the latter case he ought to know which will be the best 

 markets for him to send to that is to say, not simply the 

 best markets as a general rule, but the markets where his 

 produce would be most likely to bring a good return on the 

 day when it will be sold. Whatever their advantages under 

 ordinary conditions, Covent Garden and the markets at 

 Manchester and Liverpool might be already overstocked 

 with the very commodity which a particular grower thought 

 of sending to them, and he might if he only knew the exact 

 condition of the markets at the moment have a far better 

 chance by sending elsewhere. So important, in fact, is 

 this knowledge of the position both of markets in general 

 and of markets from day to day that the spending by the 

 Peninsular Products Exchange of Maryland, U.S.A. of 

 2,000 a year merely on gaining this information for its 

 growers must obviously be regarded as money well laid out, 

 since otherwise it would surely be saved. 



Having ascertained the best markets to send to, the 

 producer still wants to be assured that he will get a 

 thoroughly trustworthy return on the sales effected. 



In the past most of these essentials to good marketing 

 have been applied by enterprising traders who, taking advan- 

 tage of the inexperience or the inefficiency of the growers, 

 have themselves " organised " collection, transport and 

 marketing on thoroughly business lines, but mainly to their 

 own advantage, representing in this respect still another 

 development of these great commercial interests which 

 have grown up alongside of agriculture in its latter-day 

 expansion on more scientific lines, and have flourished on 

 its growth, once more annexing profits of which the actual 

 producers should have retained a much larger share. 



These intermediaries performed a useful function as 

 distributors so long as the growers were unable, by reason 

 of their extreme individualism, to collect, distribute and 

 market efficiently for themselves. When, in fact, the 

 railway companies began to urge the farmers to combine in 



