MARKETING FARM PRODUCTS 353 



this way. In some places farmers carry their produce to a 

 market place to which the consumers come to make purchases. 

 These sales all imply close proximity of producer and consumer 

 and hence are limited to goods produced in the neighborhood of 

 where they are consumed. 



By means of public carriers such as the parcel post, the ex- 

 press companies, and the railways, farm produce may be carried 

 great distances directly to consumers. In this case there is, of 

 course, one intermediate organization which, acting as an agent, 

 renders a middleman service for a fixed rate of charge. 



Each form of direct sale has its difficulties. Where goods are 

 carried directly to consumers the producer and consumer must 

 in some way find each other and come to some agreement as to 

 terms of sale. For example, a farmer who lives five miles from 

 town has a few tons of timothy hay to sell. He telephones to 

 the liverymen, the ice and coal men, the operator of the sand 

 pit, because these men keep large numbers of horses. One 

 liveryman is found who wants one load of hay and the sand man 

 takes one load, but the roads are good, it is spring before work 

 in the field has begun and other farmers are anxious to sell hay. 

 So many farmers offer hay at the market price that the buyers 

 believe the market will break. As a result the hay is left at 

 the farm, the wagon stands empty, the horses stand munching 

 hay in the barn, and the farmer turns to his wood splitting. By 

 the next week the fields are dry and horses and men are pushing 

 hard to get the oats seeded. Just when he has it figured out 

 that he can finish a given field by Saturday night, the telephone 

 rings and the sand man wants a big load of hay right away at 

 the old price, of course, at which he did not care to stock up 

 when the farmer was free to haul, for he is out of hay and must 

 have a load. The farmer debates the matter in his own mind. 

 Time in the field in oat-sowing is very valuable — possibly as 

 high as two dollars an hour for a man and team. To haul a 

 load of hay will take a man and team five hours, making an 

 opportunity cost of ten dollars to haul the hay ; whereas if the 

 hay could have been hauled when field work could not be done, 

 the opportunity cost would have been no more than a dollar. 



