MARKET METHODS AND PROBLEMS 49 



13. A prominent railroad official estimates the following annual 

 losses due to our "loose system of distribution": 



100,000 cars of fruit and vegetables which rot on the ground 

 for lack of shipping and storage facilities and knowledge 

 of receptive markets, at $350 a car $ 35,00,0,000 



Loss in cornstalks, rice, flax, and other grain straw, now 



burned 250,000,000 



Additional amount which the farmers should receive if by- 

 co-operation they knew when and where to sell their 

 products to best advantage 1,500,000,000 



Total. $1,785,000,000 



Are all these items "losses" or "wastes" in an absolute or only 

 in a relative sense ? If all could be eliminated would the nation be 

 a billion and three-quarters richer ? Would farmers ? In case you 

 had power to remedy one of these three defects each year for three 

 years, in what order would you go at them ? 



ADDITIONAL REFERENCES 



Brace, Organized Speculation. 



Powell, Co-operation in Agriculture, chaps, vii and viii. 



Weld, The Marketing of Farm Products. 



Huebner, Agricultural Commerce. 



Adams, Marketing Perishable Farm Products (Columbia Studies, No. 170). 



Nourse, The Chicago Produce Market (in press). 



Wiest, The Butter Industry in the United Stales, chaps, v-viii (Columbia 

 Studies, No. 165). 



Hibbard and Hobson, "The Marketing of Wisconsin Butter," Bulletin 270, 

 Wisconsin Experiment Station. 



Industrial Commission (1900), Distribution and Marketing of Farm Products, 

 Vol. VI of the Commission's report. 



Bohannan and Campbell, "A Preliminary Study of the Marketing of Burley 

 Tobacco in Central Kentucky," Bulletin 202, Kentucky Experiment 

 Station. 



More and Dorland, "Commercial Handling, Grading, and Marketing of 

 Potatoes," Farmers' Bulletin 753. 



Potts and Meyer, "Marketing Creamery Butter," Bulletin 456, U.S. 

 Department of Agriculture. 



Schleussner and Kitchen, "Marketing and Distribution of Western Musk- 

 melons in 191 5," Bulletin 401, U.S. Department of Agriculture; Bulle- 

 tin 315 on similar subject. 



Bassett, et al., "Co-operative Marketing and Financing of Marketing Asso- 

 ciations," Yearbook of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 19 14; "Public 

 Markets," ibid. 



Sherman, et al., "Studies of Primary Cotton Market Conditions in Okla- 

 homa," Bulletin 36, U.S. Department of Agriculture. 



