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sists on preferring eggs in the winter, when the hens want 

 to lay them in the spring. The consumer fails to understand 

 why the farmer continues to grow poor-quality produce when 

 he wants good quality. 



There are few things upon which farmers agree among 

 themselves, and still fewer upon which they agree with con- 

 sumers. The one thing upon which they can agree is that 

 they are both exploited by the middleman. 



In the minds of consumers and dairymen the inefficiency 

 of the middleman is typified by the five milk wagons on a 

 street. To them this means five times the necessary cost to 

 deliver milk. Scientific studies indicate that the cost of de- 

 livering milk depends more upon the number of quarts the 

 driver delivers each day than upon any other factor. It is not 

 at all certain that he will deliver more under the "post-office 

 system" than when he is competing with four other drivers 

 all striving to increase their sales and commissions. 



Mistrust of the meat packers, the grain markets, and the 

 milk distributors has always been an effective rallying call 

 for politicians. The high and rising costs of distributing food 

 provide a seemingly sound basis for charges of inefficiency 

 and profiteering. There is always one question, however, that 

 should be asked when an industry is charged with taking 

 a large share of anybody's dollar: What services does it 



render? 



What Does the Middleman Do? 



The high and rising costs of distributing food come about 

 largely because increasing specialization is driving the pro- 

 ducer and the consumer farther apart. More services are re- 

 quired to span the gap between them. 



A century ago the farmers in a community produced about 

 all the food that the community used. In fact, the producer 

 and the consumer frequently were the same person. Much 

 of the marketing that was done was done directly and costs 



