CHAPTER XX 



DISTRIBUTION OF MARKET PRODUCTS 



Producers, consumers, and middlemen. The preceding chap- 

 ters have treated of the characters and the uses of domestic birds, 

 and of the methods of producing them. In this chapter we shall 

 consider matters relating to the distribution of such of their prod- 

 ucts as are staple articles of commerce. There are very few 

 subjects of general interest that are as widely misunderstood as 

 some phases of the distribution of market eggs and poultry. 

 Every one uses these products ; many millions of people pro- 

 duce them in small quantities ; but the consumers who are not 

 producers live mostly in cities remote from the farming sections 

 which have great surpluses of eggs and poultry to send to the 

 cities, and so the work of distributing these products is done 

 principally by traders, or middlemen. 



The modern developments of poultry culture have been in a 

 very large measure due to middlemen and could not continue 

 without them. In a large and highly organized population middle- 

 men in many different capacities perform the services which in 

 primitive or small communities may be performed by either the 

 producer or the consumer. Consumers and producers are apt to 

 think that the middlemen get more than their fair share of the 

 profits on the articles that they buy and sell. The true situation 

 and the exact relations of producers, middlemen, and consumers 

 of poultry products are easily understood if we study the develop- 

 ment of the existing methods of distribution from the beginning. 



How the middleman enters local trade. Suppose that a farmer 

 brings to town 30 dozen eggs ; that the storekeeper will allow 

 him 20 cents a dozen for them ; and that by peddling them from 



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