STUDIES IN EGG-MARKETING 811 



what they regard as reliable sources of supply. The contract may 

 be made with the owner of a high-class farm to furnish the city 

 dealer all the eggs sold from that place. The price paid is rarely 

 agreed upon at some uniform figure for the entire year. It is usu- 

 ally placed at from two to five cents, in rare instances ten cents, 

 above the market price and therefore varies with the different 

 seasons of the year. One disadvantage in making such arrange- 

 ments with an individual farmer is that the supply furnished is 

 usually inadequate. For this reason, large stores which handle 

 eggs in considerable quantities find it advantageous to make con- 

 tracts with country stores or with creamery companies or other 

 associations handling eggs. To insure uniformity in size as well 

 as a steady supply, it is sometimes provided that the eggs must 

 weigh not less than a minimum number of ounces to the dozen. 



While a number of city retailers have thus sought out their own 

 source of supply, by far the larger portion of egg-marketing ac- 

 cording to the direct method owes its origin to the initiative of 

 farmers or local companies. Where a farmers' organization or a 

 private company drawing on supplies from a [variety of people 

 in the surrounding country attempts to establish its own market 

 among city retailers, certain difficulties are encountered that are 

 not easy to overcome. The fact that a group of farmers different 

 in tastes and habits contribute to the same supply necessarily 

 lowers its standard as compared with what can be furnished by 

 an individual farmer. The latter may acquire a good will which 

 differences in the membership of a group render it impossible to 

 duplicate. To the extent, however, that farmers band themselves 

 together under the rules of an association, they are able to mini- 

 mize the above differences to a great extent, and for this reason 

 we find that supplies furnished from associations sell at a good 

 margin above the market price. They are often able to command 

 as good a return as that from many high-class individual farmers. 

 Nevertheless, the top price paid for the most select trade will be 

 found to go to certain individual farms whose -highly specialized 

 methods place them in a class of their own. 



The farmers' association, or private company, confronts another 

 difficulty in the unloading of surplus supplies during each spring 



