2 4 o THE FARMER AND THE NEW DAY 



charge their disappointments in marketing to the mid- 

 dleman. Even the complete abolition of middlemen is 

 advocated as a prime remedy. Rascally or incompe- 

 tent handlers of farmers' products there have been a 

 plenty. Doubtless there are too many distributing 

 agencies. But middlemen are indispensable; they have 

 a real economic function. 



Transportation obviously plays a vital part in the 

 marketing of farm products. Poor highways have cost 

 and are costing our farmers millions of dollars. Rail- 

 way freight charges have frequently been purely arbi- 

 trary, bearing slight relations to cost of service. 

 Farmers living near a large market are obliged to pay 

 as much for transporting their products as is paid by the 

 grower in a far distant place. Over-competition be- 

 tween different farm regions has resulted. The reship- 

 ment of both raw and manufactured farm products has 

 built up transportation charges enormous in the aggre- 

 gate. 



The farmers demand, therefore, a thorough reor- 

 ganization of the entire business of selling farm prod- 

 ucts, in the interests of both the farmers and the con- 

 sumers. There should be full standardization and the 

 utmost economy in all the processes of marketing. 

 Harvesting, collecting, grading, packing, storing, trans- 

 porting, and city distributing should be submitted to 

 well-organized and efficiently managed enterprises. A 

 well-planned effort should be inaugurated to adapt each 

 natural agricultural area to its best possible uses. To 

 such an extent as is practicable, consuming centers, even 

 large villages and small cities, should be provided with 

 their food products from the farms adjacent. The lo- 

 cal manufacture or other preparation of farm products 



