CHAPTER XXII 



MARKETING OF GRAIN 



THE marketing of grain or of any other crop has as its 

 basis the principle of barter or trade. The producer trades 

 his crop or that portion of it not required for his needs 

 for some other commodity which he needs but does 

 not produce, or produces in insufficient quantities. In 

 former times the traders met at a common market place 

 at stated times and there bartered their goods. Later 

 on, money as a medium of exchange simplified the matter 

 of trading and made possible the great specialization in 

 production which exists to-day. The yields of the great 

 wheat fields of the Northwest and of the cotton plantations 

 of the South more than supply the local demand, and must 

 be marketed where these crops are not produced or where 

 production does not equal consumption. So it may be 

 said that the North supplies the cotton grower with a 

 considerable portion of his wheat flour, and in return 

 looks to the cotton grower for the various products of 

 the cotton fields. In this case, actual exchange of commod- 

 ities has not taken place, but the sale of one crop for 

 money makes possible the purchase of another or its prod- 

 ucts. 



The average grain producer knows but little about the 

 devious route taken by his bag of grain after it leaves his 

 hands until it reaches the ultimate consumer. He should 

 know more about the part taken in the world's business 



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