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of diBtribution would be connected by conveniently located streets, paved 

 with special reference to their traffic. It is primarily in the city that 

 inefficiency and waste exist, inefficiency and waste that affect food costs, 

 standards of living, citizenship. 



Then again the increase in transit facilities coupled with the growing 

 demand for suburban homes and country residences has withdrawn from 

 farming to speculative purposes countless acres near urban centers. Thus 

 the farming country has been beaten back farther and farther from the 

 city's gates, to the end that the farmer's marketing problem has become 

 increasingly more complex. To bridge this chasm and to link city and 

 farm as they were once linked require alert, constructive activity by the 

 city, activity of just the kind a market bureau can render. 



The problem of efficient marketing is essentially a city problem and 

 the city has left it to take care of itself. 



VII. What Can a City Market Bureau Do? 



There are primarily two points of view to be considered in getting 

 at lower food costs through economic and efficient distribution. One of 

 these is the point of view of the farmer; the other is the point of view of 

 the consumer. A city market bureau can very definitely further the 

 interests of both and thus administer to the needs of nine out of every ten 

 of our population. 



When the farmer in the country or the county agent himself comes to 

 study the marketing problem, he finds that he is practically helpless on 

 account of* distance from the city. None of his own questions can he 

 answer; none of his measures can be effectively adopted from without the 

 city. European countries and cities have thought it wise to make it 

 possible for the farmer to get public moneys in order to buy lands, and 

 have lent financial assistance to farmers' co-operative societies and 

 individual farmers as well. The American city, quite in contrast to these 

 methods, can effectively help the farmer not only in marketing his output, 

 but also in adapting, sorting, standardizing and packing that output to 

 suit the city trade. 



The question as to what a municipal market bureau can do can be 

 answered in large part by reference to the author's own letter files. One 

 farmer writes that he would like to market butter by parcel post, and 

 wants assistance for finding consumers in Philadelphia. Another would 

 fike to find a good pubfic market stall where he can sell his goods. 

 Another would like to be recommended to a reliable wholesale jobber. 

 Still another feels he can by the hamper method get in direct touch with 

 many consumers if he can get a fist of city dwellers who might care to 

 consider the hamper method. Another writes that his freight rates are 

 exorbitant and unfair. Still another holds that the freighting facilities 

 offered at his station are wholly inadequate. Another finds need for the 

 completion of a certain street within the city in order to have a thorough- 



