14 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [P. D. 4. 



Now you say, "There is an interference in between." The 

 retailer might buy this product at the low price when we have 

 the glut on the market. But the News Service was taking it to 

 the consumer at low prices. It was doing it in this manner: 

 an advertisement was placed in the papers, — publicity was 

 given through the columns of the paper, — stating that the 

 spinach was sold by the farmer at 40 cents a bushel. When she 

 went to the storekeeper, the housewife refused to pay 40 cents 

 a peck for that spinach, and said, "This is an unjust profit." 

 She required that he sell the spinach at some reasonable margin 

 of profit. When he was obliged to do this he found that he sold 

 increased volumes, and although he objected at first to the in- 

 terference in his business, — the giving of publicity to the price 

 which he paid for the product, — admission was made later by 

 some of the representatives of that business that they had sold 

 an increased volume, which had more than made up for the 

 difference which they had formerly made in profit. 



Now, what we wish to advocate is that these men "in be- 

 tween" will sell an increased volume on a closer margin, helping 

 us to remove the glutted condition from the farm, and enabling 

 the farmer to raise the product at a price which will warrant 

 yielding to the claims which are made on that increased pro- 

 duction, and which will enable the consumer to secure the 

 product at somewhere near a reasonable price. 



Do you see the beautiful condition brought about in this 

 way? Well, it increased the price to the producer and de- 

 creased the price to the consumer. At the same time, the in- 

 creased volume in between made a greater net profit for the 

 middle man. Now, is there any policy or statement which says 

 "cut out" or "eliminate" the middle man? It is admitting his 

 necessity, but trying to bring a condition to bear, or a relation- 

 ship to bear, which will be more in accordance with the eco- 

 nomic laws. 



I found on going into Hartford, Connecticut, upon my en- 

 trance into the work here in New England, that peaches were 

 selling on September 6 at 90 cents to a dollar a half-bushel 

 basket. That same product was selling on the market of Port- 

 land, Maine, on that particular, and on the following, day at 

 $1.75 a half-bushel basket, and a scarcity on the market was 



