286 PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



the farmers. Cooperative storehouses, elevators, etc., coopera- 

 tion in the hiring of selling agents, etc., will prove highly profit- 

 able to those who are willing and able to cooperate. Numberless 

 illustrations could be found in support of this conclusion. The 

 potato growers of Aroostook County, Maine, began growing 

 potatoes before there was a well-developed system of handling 

 their crop through private enterprise. By the cooperative build- 

 ing of storehouses and the cooperative selling of their crops 

 they succeeded in getting the advantages of a highly organ- 

 ized market without waiting for private enterprise to develop 

 a system of handling the crop. 



The growers of agricultural specialties have two well-recog- 

 nized methods of selling their products. One is judicious adver- 

 tising and the other is the exhibition of their products before 

 the eyes of prospective purchasers. The question of the econ- 

 omy of advertising has been discussed a great deal by economic 

 writers, and much can be said against it from the economic point 

 of view. It is urged that, though advertising may be a means of 

 attracting trade from one dealer to another, it really serves no 

 social purpose, since one loses as much as another gains. When 

 two rival grocers or manufacturers advertise the alleged merits of 

 their respective brands of soap or codfish, it is difficult to see 

 what social purpose is fulfilled. It is not probable that any more 

 soap or codfish are bought than would be bought if there were 

 no advertising. If that be true, all such advertising is a waste 

 of social energy and is therefore undoubtedly and unqualifiedly 

 wrong. But these objections cannot apply to the reasonable ad- 

 vertising of an agricultural specialty. Such advertising is infor- 

 mational and is a real service *to the buyer as well as to the seller. 

 An agricultural specialty, being something for which there is no 

 well-organized market, no constant and calculable demand, and 

 no quotable price, it is not always easy for the seller and the 

 buyer to get together. Reasonable advertising informs them of 



