49 



our energy spent as promoters, but we charged for all the actual expense 

 of marketing the eggs. We hired special assistants to do the candling 

 and grading of the eggs. We started out by receiving only a few cases 

 the first week and we shipped those eggs, first, to a commission man. 

 We did not have any special trade established. This commission man 

 paid us a cent above top wholesale quotations. We sent all the eggs that 

 were brought to us, the best as well as all other grades, and then as soon 

 as returns were received, we in turn forwarded to the farmers our checks, 

 simply taking out so much per dozen for handling, which amounted to 

 approximately two cents per dozen, and the farmers were getting one 

 and one-half or two cents per dozen more than they had been receiving 

 before. Gradually the farmers began to bring in more eggs and we were 

 able to establish a trade with some New York hotels for the best grades. 

 This hotel trade gave us much better returns for our best grades of eggs 

 than the wholesalers could, and so from this time on our markets were 

 considerably improved. This last fall we have had difficulty again in 

 getting eggs enough to supply the trade, because the farmers were not 

 in the habit of trying to produce many eggs during the winter, because 

 the price had never risen over about thirty-five cents per dozen, and they 

 could not afford to produce eggs for that. We had to start sending out 

 wagons to collect eggs from the farmers, and it was a difficult proposition 

 to find them, but we did find a few and the prices received were away 

 beyond what the individual producers could have obtained by them- 

 selves for their small lots. The last returns paid to the farmers were at 

 the rate of about sixty-seven cents per dozen for the fancy white eggs. 

 The brown eggs were fifteen cents less per dozen. Fifteen cents per dozen 

 difference between white and brown eggs. Of course, it is up to the farmer 

 to produce white eggs if he can get more for white eggs than he can for 

 brown eggs, but the consumer, on the other hand, who uses white eggs 

 pays more than she needs to for the desired degree of freshness. Here 

 are two counterbalancing forces. If we turn to the consumer we should 

 advise him to use brown eggs, and if we turn to the producer we tell him 

 to produce white eggs and he will get a higher price for them, and eventu- 

 ally the prices of brown and white eggs will be more nearly equal. 



Conservatively speaking, the farmers who cared for their products 

 were able to average about fifty cents per dozen for their eggs, white or 

 brown, while last year these same farmers during the same season of the 

 year were not getting more than thirty or thirty-five cents for their eggs. 

 This year eggs are about five cents higher than they were last year, but 

 this fact comes far from offsetting the advantage of organization. Next 

 spring, if we get for the farmers two cents more per dozen than they 

 could otherwise have obtained, we can call our work very successful. 



The organization is not binding on the farmers at the present time. 

 We are simply holding the farmers by reason of the benefits which they 

 get from the organization. We do not ask them to become members yet, 



