52 



Mr. Benjamin: The difference is due to the fact that last year the 

 farmers sold their eggs to country peddlers, who went around and who 

 picked up the country stock, and by the time it got to the wholesale man 

 eggs were not worth any more than that. The farmer does not think his 

 eggs are better this year than last year. He does not believe in holding 

 his eggs, and disposing of them promptly; they are of a better quality, 

 and that is the reason they are getting greater prices. The improved 

 manner of distribution in getting these eggs from the farmer to the 

 market is the reason he is getting more. 



Mr. Brown : Is it a fact that in Boston brown eggs are worth more 

 than white eggs, and a man there pays as much for brown eggs as a New 

 Yorker pays for white eggs? 



Mr. Benjamin: That is a fact; he pays about five cents more for 

 brown eggs than for white eggs. That is due to the fact that around 

 Boston they have more hens laying brown eggs. The product in the 

 immediate vicinity of Boston is usually brown eggs. 



Mr. John J. Macdonald : I was very much interested in the address 

 of Mr. Benjamin, and he brought out something I am very much inter- 

 ested in, and that is the middleman. I happen to be one of those who 

 have been robbing the people for the last thirty or forty years, according 

 to the newspapers. I am glad to see the Agricultural Department of 

 New York is back of our plan and standing- Up for us. Another thought 

 has been brought to our minds and that is, that the agricultural colleges 

 of New York are authorizing their customers to ask sixty-six cents a 

 dozen for eggs, and Mr. Benjamin says he was down in New York and 

 consulted with Mrs. Heath. The other day I saw an interview in the 

 World of New York, in which she said she only got thirty cents a dozen 

 for eggs. There is some discrepancy here somewhere. Mr. Benjamin 

 has made the best argument for the middleman I have ever heard made. 

 The middleman will be here with us when you and I are in our graves. 

 You can't do without him. I will say right now that this thing has gone 

 on until the people begin to believe that the man between was getting 

 eight or ten or fifteen cents a dozen profit on eggs, and now we have Mr. 

 Benjamin declaring that the farmer gets it all. 



Mr. Benjamin: I think, perhaps, you may have misunderstood me. 

 I told you, in the first place, that I beheve the middleman is necessary 

 to connect up the producer with the consumer. What we have done is 

 simply to get the producers together, and in this particular we are in the 

 shape of middlemen. These people are not large producers, but we get 

 enough together in order to be able to send enough eggs direct to the 

 wholesale dealer or large consumer. 



Mrs. Smith: I do not want to interfere with this discussion, but the 

 next speaker on this afternoon's programme will speak on the question of 



