2 BULLETIN 267, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



the means whereby his produce finally reaches the consumer might 

 exert a very appreciable influence on the producer's method of grad- 

 ing, packing, shipping, or selling. 



This bulletin is designed to assist the shipper in obtaining a better 

 understanding of prevailing practices and of distributing agencies. 

 This should enable him to use the existing machinery of distribution 

 more intelligently and to avoid certain needless annoyances and 

 losses. Attention is confined to general practices on the larger mar- 

 kets which receive fruits and vegetables in car lots from distant 

 points. The facts are presented in explanatory form and some at- 

 tempt has been made to give specific advice as to how certain results 

 are to be secured. 



A glossary of the trade terms and expressions as used in this bul- 

 letin will" be found on pages 26 and 27. As these terms are not used in 

 exactly the same sense in all parts of the country, this glossary should 

 be consulted freely. 



NECESSITY FOR DISTRIBUTING AGENCIES. 



The development of transportation facilities and the extension of 

 our agricultural area have widened the distance between producer 

 and consumer. This is as true commercially as it is physically. This 

 condition has brought with it many difficulties, and the services of 

 specialists have been required to accomplish the distribution of large 

 crops over wide areas. Certain channels of trade have been created 

 and there are numerous avenues through which the farmer may reach 

 the consumer. Few of these avenues are direct. The movement of 

 farm products from producer to consumer appears to both to proceed 

 in most cases along circuitous and devious ways. 



This extensive commerce in food products has called into existence 

 many special agencies in that large class known as "middlemen." 

 During recent years there has been a great deal of agitation against 

 ihose engaged in food distribution. Few people have any clear idea 

 as to just who these middlemen are and what functions they per- 

 forin. It is probably not going too far to say that, to the uninitiated, 

 the middleman is a rather hazily defined person, whose chief func- 

 tion is to levy, arbitrarily, a heavy tribute on all foodstuffs passing 

 from the producer to the consumer. The attention of the public has 

 been directed to increased costs rather than to service rendered. 

 Evidently it has never occurred to many who clamor for reform that 

 economic conditions would not permit the long continued existence 

 of a marketing agency which was simply a parasite. Sooner or later 

 business competition must eliminate all intermediate agencies which 

 perform no definite useful functions. 



Several important factors have contributed to the establishment of 

 many middlemen as necessary agents in the present system of market- 



