INTERNATIONAL CONSOLIDATION 205 



cases on the road to bankruptcy and foreclosure. If he does 

 not possess a knowledge of fundamental principles of me- 

 chanics, his expenses for repairs of machines will exceed all 

 his income. The ignorance of the system of feeding animals 

 will result in the cost of production being above the price 

 fixed for the finished product and ruin is his lot. If he at- 

 tempts after all to start truck farming or market gardening 

 without a knowledge of scientific application of heat, sunlight, 

 and plant food to growing plants, such an attempt in a very 

 short time will result in disastrous failure and irreparable 

 losses. 



The marketing of his products is, however, for the modern 

 specialist farmer a much harder task yet than the production 

 itself. While he is absolutely dependent on the market, he has 

 practically no knowledge of modern methods or system of 

 marketing. It is a well-known fact of the competitive system 

 of our times that the success of every producer depends much 

 more on his ability to sell than on his knowledge of the pro- 

 cesses of production. In the field of modern American manu- 

 facture, which is undoubtedly in much more advanced stage of 

 development than modern American agriculture, the process 

 of sale of many articles is much more expensive than the 

 process of manufacturing the same. The former chiefly con- 

 sists of impetuous advertising and skilful manipulating of the 

 market. Thus the thing of foremost importance in modern 

 marketing is to know what one's competitors are doing. The 

 American manufacturer understands that perfectly, and what 

 concerns him mostly in transaction of his business, is to learn 

 in some way what his competitors are doing or intending to 

 do. Not so with the American farmer. Not only he does not 

 know what his competitors in some far away comer of the 

 globe are doing, but in most cases even does not care to know 

 what his neighbors are doing. Such a lack of knowledge of 

 conditions of the market and its probable future movements 

 puts the modern specialist farmer in the greatest disadvantage. 

 He must cither sell his crops to a local buyer, in which case 

 the latter only knows the facts essential to the making of a 

 bargain, "r to intrust them to the noble and tender mercies 

 of a commission man. Though such intrusting of the selling 



