366 



THE IKRIGATION AGE. 



FIX STANDARDS FOR YOUR FARM PRODUCE 



The Community Which Cooperates Is Certain to Attract Buyers 



By W. C. PALMER 



North Dakota Experiment Station 



THE lack of standardization in farm products 

 makes the marketing of them expensive and 

 difficult. The market demands standardized prod- 

 ucts and too often gets it in this way: Some one 

 buys the varied products that the farmers bring in, 

 and out of the assortment tries to make grades and 

 classes so far as pos- 



' 



The community which breeds one-kind of cattle, 

 or one kind of any other kind of stock, will attract 

 buyers, while the community that breeds no par- 

 ticular kind of stock, or has several kinds, will have 

 to hunt for a market, and when it finds the market 

 it will not have the prestige of the other one. The 

 stock can be produced cheaper, too, where several 

 are raising one kind. 



The buyer who wants to pick up a carload of 



cattle and has to 



One-year-old apple orchard in the lower Yellowstone government project in Mon- 

 tana and North Dakota. 



sible, and then it is 

 impossible to make 

 much of any quality 

 out of it. It requires 

 considerable work 

 and there is neces- 

 sarily much waste. 

 Considerable risk is 

 taken ; this all means 

 that the price paid 

 must needs be low in 

 order to make enough 

 margin to pay for all 

 the work, the waste, 

 the risk, and to leave 

 a profit. 



It would take 

 but little more work, 

 and perhaps less, for 

 the farmers of a com- 

 munity to plan to- 

 gether and to pro- 

 duce considerable of 

 one thing, and that 

 of a good quality. Then the product would be 

 ready for the market when it leaves the farm. This 

 will bring the farmer a better price. It has cut out 

 the need of the middleman, whose job it has been 

 to get the stuff ready to market. 



This is a community problem. To make it ef- 

 fective a number of farmers must produce the same 

 thing and all of the same quality, and prepare it for 

 market in the same way. Each farmer must stand 

 back of his product, must guarantee it so that all 

 the produce coming from this community is stand- 

 ardized and guaranteed. This will bring the mar- 

 ket to the community, and this community will be 

 ahead of all other places not so organized in pro- 

 ducing. 



A community in which each farmer grows a 

 different kind of potato, and some mixed kinds, will 

 never attract potato buyers ; in fact such products 

 will be hard to sell at any price. On the other hand, 

 the community in which the farmers grow the same 

 kind and quality of potato will have the market 

 come to it. The cost of production would be no 

 more in the second case than in the first : in fact 

 the community that is planning and working to- 

 gether can produce the potatoes cheaper than the 

 community in which community concert is lacking. 



The above cut was made from a Northern Pacific Ry. photograph. 



visit 10 or 15 herds 

 scattered over a 

 state, will use up a 

 couple of w e e k s' 

 time and pay out a 

 lot of money for 

 livery and hotel bills 

 in visiting the herds, 

 and then if he finds 

 one or two animals 

 at each place it will 

 be expensive and 

 take a good deal of 

 time to get them all 

 together. On the 

 other hand, if the ten 

 or fifteen herds are 

 located in one place 

 he could visit them 

 in one or two days 

 and in three days' 

 time he could have 

 them bought and all 

 loaded 'on a car 

 ready for shipping, while in the other case it might 

 take three weeks or even more to accomplish the 

 same thing. 



Xew Salem, N. D., and Northfield, Minn., are 

 good examples of communities that are planning 

 together in producing Holstein cattle. 



The fruit growers of the West have organized 

 so they can standardize and guarantee their fruit. 

 They are so well organized that they can keep poor 

 varieties from being planted in their community. 

 The result is that a box of a certain kind and grade 

 of apples can be duplicated year after year, and 

 the quality can be depended on. It is on this point 

 that the Western fruit growers are in command of 

 the market even in the East, where there is more 

 fruit grown, but little community planning, stand- 

 ardizing, and guaranteeing. 



To make the most of the opportunities in any 

 community it is necessary that the members of the 

 community, or a number of them, plan together in 

 their production ; that they agree on some one thing 

 or a few things ; and that good and uniform quality 

 be produced, such as the market wants. Then stand 

 back of the goods, guarantee them. The community 

 that will do this can keep the cost of production 

 down to a minimum, and sell its goods at a premium. 



