MARKETING GRAIN AT COUNTRY POINTS. 15 



the middlemen. Objections to this method of trading are that the 

 small shipper, of necessity, has but a limited amount of grain for 

 sale, and the retailer or consumer is in the market only at infrequent 

 intervals. Often, when the latter wishes to buy, the shipper may 

 have nothing to sell, or vice versa. Then, too, the search for cus- 

 tomers frequently entails far greater expense than the amount of 

 profit paid to a middleman for this service. 



COUNTRY TRACK BUYERS. 



Country track buyers usually are located at central points in a 

 shipping territory, where communication by telephone is established 

 easily with numerous shippers. The track buyers purchase grain on 

 track, selling it to terminal markets, millers, jobbers, retailers, or 

 others wherever opportunity presents itself for profitable trading. 

 The advantage of this method lies in the proximity of the buyer to 

 the shipper, a condition materially hastening settlement of accounts 

 and adjustment of disputes. Disadvantages incident to the employ- 

 ment of the country track buyer are (a) frequent inability to obtain 

 official weights and inspection, a condition giving rise to occasional 

 disputes, and (b) lack of storage facilities. 



JOBBERS AND OTHER MIDDLEMEN. 



The jobbers distribute grain to the retailers and consumers in car- 

 load lots from central points in consuming territory, usually with- 

 out rehandling, although some have warehouses or elevators into 

 which carload shipments from producing centers or from terminal 

 markets are unloaded and reshipped in mixed cars. The advantages 

 and disadvantages of the use of the jobber are similar to those cited 

 in connection with the track buyer, with the exception that the latter 

 is in close touch with the shipper, while the former is contiguous to 

 the consumer. Instances where it is practicable and desirable to 

 utilize the services of one or more of these agencies are numerous, 

 but in some cases their use is needlessly multiplied, thus increasing 

 to some extent the cost of handling the grain. Cases are occasionally 

 found where the same car of grain has passed through the hands of 

 several track buyers, terminal market dealers or jobbers, and others 

 before finally reaching the consumer. 



RELATIVE USE OF METHODS. 



Data obtained in 1915 from a number of elevators in the surplus- 

 grain States of the Middle West with regard to the disposition of 

 their grain indicate that 17 per cent of the product from these houses 

 was sold either to terminal markets, track buyers, retailers, or con- 

 sumers in the same State as that in which the house was located ; 25 



