10 



was a lack of distribution. The people of Hartford had failed 

 to recognize the fact that there was a scarcity in Portland, 

 Maine. There is some admission to be made this year for 

 transportation problems; but that condition has been found in 

 other years, as well as in the present year, so that it is a typical 

 illustration as well as one which applies to this particular 

 season. 



The Market News Service has proved of inestimable value to 

 the people of the eastern shore, to whom I referred awhile ago. 

 Its members, through their organization, are marketing all over 

 the United States. When I went down into that country a 

 number of years ago I found that those men recognized the 

 three markets of Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York. That 

 was the limit of their horizon and the extent of their geography 

 so far as markets were concerned. When I was there two or 

 three months ago I found those men shipping on that particular 

 day 104 carloads of sweet potatoes. They went to 59 different 

 markets throughout the United States. 



They avoid glutting Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York; 

 they avoid shipping to those cities and having the crop diverted, 

 at extra cost and expense. They sent the potatoes right on to 

 Salt Lake City, Denver, Minneapolis, Chicago and right down 

 to Fort Worth; and 12 or 14 cars of them up here into dif- 

 ferent points in New England, — not all to Boston, but differ- 

 ent points in New England. 



Some of that information had been secured through their 

 own channels, but a larger part of it had been secured, I was 

 told, through the information furnished by the Bureau of Mar- 

 kets from Washington. 



It has helped the growers, as I have stated before, who have 

 made their consignments to the local man. So that it not only 

 applies to the large organized institutions, such as the Eastern 

 Shore of Virginia Produce Exchange, but also to you as indi- 

 viduals. It applies to you whether you haul to the Boston or 

 Springfield market or the Providence market, or whether you 

 go off in some of the surrounding smaller cities and sell your 

 produce there; because how many times do the men who are 

 selling in those smaller markets make a guess on what their 

 product should bring? We do not recognize the law of supply 



