408 AGRICULTURAL APPROPRIATION BILL, 1924, 



COST OF MARKETING. 



Now, I would like to ask Mr. Schoonfeld to cover the one project 

 that we have omitted, the cost of marketing. Mr. Scheonfeld is in 

 charge of our research work and this costs division is operated almost 

 directly under his supervision. 



Mr. J^CTioEXFELD. Doctor Taylor has outlined the lines of study we 

 think are necessary in the marketinj^ processes. 



Before we can attempt the solution of prohlems encountered in 

 the marketing of agricultural products, it is absolutely necessary that 

 comprehensive studies be made of the various steps, processes, chan- 

 nels, and functions involved in the marketing of commodities. Along 

 with such steps it is necessary to measure the costs of these various 

 steps and to ascertain from tliese studies which are economic or not 

 economic, the very items pointed out in the cost production studies. 



Before it is advisable to make such detailed cost studies it is de- 

 sirable to study margins or charges exacted, rather than to plunge 

 into detailed cost studies, which are time consumers and expensive 

 and which do not always yield what is wanted. 



After we have studied these margins and have segregated them so 

 as to be able to see the margin for the man who handles the com- 

 modity at the point of shipment, the fransportation agency charge 

 and the terminal marketing margins, then we are in a position to 

 approach the whole problem of costs in a more logical manner. 



During the present and last fiscal year, a comprehensive study of 

 the costs of marketing live stock was started in the corn belt and 

 was continued into the present fiscal year. This study has been 

 extended so as to include the territory in the South and West. The 

 data secured is now being tabulated, and is practically ready for 

 publication. We have found, however, in these data, certain 

 factors which were entirely unlooked for in our preliminary cost 

 studies. It will be necessary to go back and determine just what 

 the causes and conditions were back of these factors. 



For example, in our live-stock marketing study we find that 

 where there are mixed shipments of hogs, shinments in which cattle 

 or sheep were in the same car, that universally the number of crip- 

 pled hogs and dead hogs was higiier in such shijiments. We find, 

 also, tiiat the number of cri]>])led hogs is higher in the winter months 

 and late fall months than during May, June, and July. It will be 

 necessary to ascertain the reasons for these losses, and, as pointed 

 out by Mr. Anderson in his reference to our cost of production 

 studies, cost studies should indicnte the losses with re(H)mnu'n(l!iti(ni>; 

 as to how to avoid or reduce them wiiere possible. 



We have found, for exam]>le, that where it is popularly assumeil 

 that marketing maigins of certain agencies were high, that these 

 margins might be low in c()m])arisoii with other agencies tliat take 

 a larger jjroportion of the spread between consumer and producer. 



Mr. Anuekson. ilow fai- have vou gone along with this margin 

 Study ? 



Mr. ScTioE.NFELi). Ill some commodities — potatoes and onions, 

 apples, and in some of (he dairy commodities — we have merely 

 coinph'ted su<li studies of margins from the j)rodu('er to the con- 

 sumer. I'rcjbubly 2") or .'{() commodities are now being studied in 

 this manner. We have retail margins on some conunochties covering 



I 



