STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 29 



In this connection it may not be out of place to say just one 

 word about that threadbare subject, the cost of living. The 

 consumer Mmself is the only person who can do anything im- 

 mediately in this matter. Let him stop telephoning each morn- 

 ing for market supplies and instead, in cities that are supplied 

 with market houses, visit the market and select his produce 

 there. Let him take the trouble to get acquainted with near by 

 or even slightly distant farmers within the first two parcel-post 

 zones, within which express rates also for large quantities are 

 reasonable. Let the housewife standardize her needs to some 

 extent and overcome the false pride or laziness which prevents 

 carrying home even so small a purchase as a spool of thread. 

 Let the retail merchants give a discount to patrons who pay 

 cash and more particularly to those who carry home their 

 purchases, and savings will be efifected immediately. I do not 

 mean that this provides a final solution of the problem. It 

 merely presents some of the ways in which to make a beginning. 



Individual retailers insist, and there is no reason to doubt 

 their truthfulness, that they are not making excessive profits. 

 The trouble is that there are so many retailers and the methods 

 of distribution and delivery that have developed are so expen- 

 sive that the overhead charges which the product must bear add 

 excessively to the price. A two or three per cent reduction for 

 cash with a further substantial reduction for self-delivery 

 should result in decided economies all around to the consumer. 



Transportation, both on account of its cost and on account of 

 the deterioration which farm products frequently suffer in 

 transit, is one of the most important of the general problems 

 relating to marketing. In a broad sense it is unlikely that 

 freight rates on farm products are unreasonably high, though 

 there are probably particular commodities which pay a higher 

 rate in proportion to the care they require than others, and 

 there are no doubt points or even areas which suffer unduly 

 through freight-rate differences. However, the chief problems 

 related to transportation have to do with other points than 

 rates. I will merely run over some of those which require 

 investigation with a view to possible improvements. I am of 

 the opinion that most of our railroad systems will cooperate 

 in bringing about changes for the b^etter wherever the facts 



