THE FARMER'S WAR AGAINST MONOPOLIES. 483 



the State concluded, last year, that they might as well 

 sell directly to the packers themselves, and appointed 

 one of their number to collect the hogs and deliver 

 them. A considerable saving was made in this way, 

 and the experiment will be much more extensively 

 tried this Fall. In some parts of the State the Grangers 

 are already talking of establishing their own packing- 

 houses, so that, instead of selling the hogs alive, they 

 can sell them in the shape of bacon, hams, arid lard, 

 packed and ready for shipment. They hope to realize 

 much larger prices than by the old system. 



"Another experiment, which was tried to a limited 

 extent last Spring, and was attended with a gratifying 

 degree of success, was the direct shipment, by members 

 of the Grange in this State, of provisions to planters 

 in the South, who are members of the Grange there. 

 This business was managed by Mr. Shankland of this 

 city, a member of the National Executive Committee 

 of the Grange. He received orders from Grangers in 

 South Carolina, accompanied by the cash, and pur- 

 chased flour and bacon, which he shipped directly to 

 the consumer. The purchases were made of the far- 

 mers when it was possible to do so, and when not, of 

 the packers and millers in this city. The shipments 

 were made by rail, by way of Cairo, Hickman, Ken- 

 tucky, Nashville, Chattanooga, and Atlanta, to Colum- 

 bia, two trans-shipments being made on the route. 

 The railroad companies made special rates at from 

 $1.08 to $1.T5 per hundred pounds. Bacon was thus 

 laid down al Columbia, South Carolina, at less than 

 eight cents a pound, while its market value there was 

 from 12 to 14 cents a pound. One planter informed 

 Mr. Shankland that he saved by this plan $400 on a 



