THE FARMER AND THE SPI-X'ULATOR. 181 



mate contracts, and it is a business necessity for millers and 

 other manufacturers to purchase stock for future delivery, and 

 to put up or require margins or bonds to assure fulfilment 

 of obligations. Until the transaction is closed, it can not be 

 assumed to be speculative. Legal ingenuity will find means 

 of evading the law. But while, therefore, effective enforcement 

 of any "anti-option" law is hardly to be expected, it may be 

 well to put upon it the stamp of illegality. 



The most effective means of supervising speculative trade 

 in farm products is a wide diffusion, among farmers, of their 

 actual value. This subject, including the agencies for gather- 

 ing and diffusing this information, is considered in other 

 chapters of this book. 



