li^ho^^i, -to- B^^amie..? 



WHOLESALER 



Food Prices 

 Down? 



FARM 



PRICES 



ARE! 



HOW much is ammonium nitrate 

 this year, Mr. Supplier?" 

 "Seventy-two dollars a ton." 

 "It is! Well, guess I'll have 

 to have it anyway. Better send 

 me about three tons. By the way, what 

 are peach baskets going to cost us this 

 year?" 



"We'll have to get $3.36 a dozen, Mr. 

 Farmer. Seems high, doesn't it, but 

 that's the price." 



(Time passes. It is now harvest 

 time.) 



"Hello, is this the Blizzard Peach 

 Packing Company?" 



"Yes." 



"This is Mr. Farmer. How much are 

 you paying for peaches this morning?" 



"Hale-Havens, $1.25 and Rochesters, 

 $1." 



"W^ell, I guess I can't afford to pick 

 'em for that. My spray and labor have 

 been so high this year that I couldn't 

 make ends meet at that price." 



"That's all we can pay. Sorry." 



Conversations similar to those above 

 might be carried on almost any year, 

 whether Mr. Farmer was an orchardist 

 or a corn-hog farmer. Whether the 

 farmer is raising peaches, pigs, or 

 pumpkins, the story is much the same. • 

 He asks the price of the things he has 

 to buy, and pays what is asked. \^'hen 



By FRANK M. ATCHLEY 



lAA DIracter of Rasaarch 



he gets ready to sell his product, he asks 

 how much they are paying and gets the 

 price the other man quotes. 



Doing business in a market where 

 somebody else sets all the prices makes 

 it easy to see why farmers demand some 

 degree of price protection. Some people 

 think that fixed price supports would 

 be the best thing for the farmer. Others 

 think that flexible supports, designed 

 to prevent the collapse of farm prices, 

 would be preferable. Furthermore, 

 there are many cases where properly 

 operated farm cooperatives can do a 

 great deal to change the market system 

 in which a farmer sells his produce. 



It is common knowledge that some 

 producers in this country have dumped 

 large quantities of their produce in the 

 ocean rather than sell it at a price they 

 considered too low. Perhaps that is 

 the extreme. It seems too bad to destroy 

 food when "half the people in the world 

 go to bed hungry every night." Per- 

 haps there are other less drastic means 

 by which cooperatives can help deter- 

 mine prices of things farmers sell. 



We hear a great deal of conversation 

 these days both on the street corner and 

 in the halls of Congress about why 



300 



250 



ISO 



100 



10 



L A. A. RECORD 



