SOME ECONOMIC INTERESTS 123 



of these countries have learned to sell their products in a business- 

 like way and buy their agricultural requirements together. They 

 give their attention to production but they also see to it that 

 their products are sold intelligently and wisely by their own 

 paid agents. The farmer cannot very well learn all there is 

 to know about any market but a hundred farmers can hire a 

 marketing expert to handle their products and can afford to 

 pay him a good salary out of increased returns that otherwise 

 would go to a host of middlemen. 



The market of to-day demands two or three very simple things 

 of the producer. One of the first and simplest is that the quality 

 of the product be dependable. The market desires such products 

 as are of known quality, whether this quality be first, second 

 or third. One great reason why farmers do not receive the 

 highest price for their crops is that they have not learned to ship 

 to the market uniform grades or qualities. When, for example, 

 a barrel of apples is packed it is likely to contain apples of the 

 first grade, second grade and culls; perhaps a large part of the 

 barrel cannot be used at all. The second barrel may be just like 

 the first or it may be something very different. 



In the second place, the market demands a neat and uniform 

 package. Every marketman in the country complains of the 

 fact that farmers have little real business sense in the matter of 

 putting up their products in packages. One finds potatoes com- 

 ing into the market some in barrels, some in boxes, some in bags, 

 some in other packages of every description and degree of de- 

 crepitude. A uniform, neat and tasty package suited to the 

 commodity which it contains is a great factor in increasing the 

 price of the product. 



In the third place, the market wants products shipped reg- 

 ularly in quantities sufficient to supply the demand. It is no 

 little matter to the marketman that he can get all the potatoes 

 he wants one week and cannot get any the next. What he de- 

 sires is, perhaps, a carload of potatoes every other day for six 

 months and a carload every three days for the other six months. 

 At any rate, it is essential that he receive his shipments regularly 

 from the shipper. 



These simple essentials dependable goods, packed uniformly 

 and neatly, well graded, shipped regularly in sufficient quantities 



