STUDIES IN EGG-MARKETING 793 



are constantly changing suggests the inevitable effect of trying to 

 perpetuate a given method for any. great length of time. While it 

 is important, therefore, to appreciate the merits of the early method 

 of egg-marketing as applied to the pioneer conditions through 

 which Minnesota passed some decades ago, it is fully as important 

 to note the changes in method adopted wherever communities 

 have successfully readjusted themselves to changed conditions. It 

 is to a study of changes from the early method of egg-marketing 

 that the reader's attention is directed in the following section. 



THE INDIRECT METHOD OF EGG-MARKETING 



So long as the farmer was able to get all the things he wanted 

 by trading his products at the country store, the early method of 

 egg-marketing proved fairly satisfactory. As soon, however, as 

 he began to want other things than those for sale by the country 

 merchant, he began to realize the limitations of his local market. 

 It tied him down to the barter method afforded at the country 

 store. It meant a kind of trading restricted to the wares and 

 terms of the country merchant. Only when several local stores 

 were bidding for the farmer's butter and eggs, did the stress of 

 competition tend to increase the exchange value of these products 

 and widen the range of choice open to the farmer. 



The situation was somewhat different when the farmer arranged 

 for the disposal of his fall crop. The grain was sold at the local 

 elevator for cash, and the money thus secured enabled the farmer 

 to pay his taxes and engage in other transactions involving the 

 need of general purchasing power. There was a certain inde- 

 pendence of movement acquired through the ownership of money 

 which appealed strongly to the individualistic temperament of the 

 average farmer. The amount of freedom thus acquired was very 

 limited, however, for the average pioneer. Whatever money was 

 available from the sale of grain often was needed for taxes, inter- 

 est on loans, and partial payments on indebtedness. As already 

 stated, the pressure of these fixed charges was especially severe 

 during seasons of crop failure, and it was then that farmers came 

 to realize the value and need of other sources of income. 



