358 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



self-sufficing economy of the isolated pioneer, but rather with 

 some ideal which lies as a possibility of the future. Commercial 

 agriculture, that is, production primarily for the market and 

 buying upon the market many of the articles consumed by the 

 farmer, is more productive because: (i) each agricultural 

 territory can be devoted to the production of those articles for 

 which it is by nature especially suited ; (2) each man may devote 

 himself to the lines of agriculture in which he is most effective ; 

 and (3) the agricultural classes may benefit by the economies 

 introduced into manufactures by machine methods and large- 

 scale production. To appreciate the economic significance 

 of the change from the self-sufficing to the commercial economy 

 one need only compare the comforts enjoyed by the modern 

 farmer with those of the pioneer. 



With this great advantage accruing to the farmer as a result 

 of the commercial system, the question properly arises in your 

 minds, what are the farmers kicking about? Why are they 

 condemning the middleman who is essential to the commercial 

 system? This is the question the writer will attempt to 

 answer. 



In the first place there are men who make it their business 

 to stir up trouble. These men take a few more or less well- 

 established facts and by the free use of their fertile imaginations 

 weave a fabrication which appeals to the avarice of men. It is 

 popular in this type of agitation to make a statement somewhat 

 as follows : " When the consumer pays a dollar, the farmer 

 gets only forty-eight cents " ; and then with a rolling of the eyes 

 and a stern, excited look intended to imply that he himself has 

 seen many of the thieves, the speaker says, " Who gets the rest ? " 

 The reply desired is, " the middlemen — the thieving middle- 

 men." 



But why do intelligent farmers listen to such foolishness? 

 For a very simple reason. However intelligent they may be 

 regarding farming, they are uneducated on the subject of middle- 

 man processes and the costs of the middleman services. Their 

 honesty and good faith in the matter is demonstrated, when, 

 following in the wake of the " middleman swatters," the wily 



