HOW EGGS ARE MARKETED 
As a matter of fact the price paid to farmers for eggs by 
the general stores of the Mississippi Valley is frequently one 
to two cents above the price at which the storekeeper sells 
the product. Allowing the cost of handling, we have a con- 
dition prevailing in which the merchant is handling eggs at 
from five to ten per cent. loss, and it stands to reason that 
he is making up the loss by adding that per cent. to his profits 
on his goods. Some of the effects of this system are: 
1—The inflated prices of merchandise is an injustice to the 
townspeople and to farmers not selling produce, in fact it 
amounts to a taxation of these people for the benefit of the 
egg producers. 2—The inflated prices of merchant’s wares 
work to his disadvantage in competition with mail order or 
out-of-town trade. 3—The farmer who exchanges eggs for dry 
goods is not being paid more for his eggs, save as the tax on 
the townspeople contributes a little to that end, but is in the 
main merely swapping more dollars. 4—The use of eggs as 
a drawing card for trade works in favor of inferior produce, 
and the loss to the farmer through the lowering of prices thus 
caused, is much greater than his gain through the forced con- 
tributions of his neighbors. 
The Huckster. 
The huckster or peddling wagon which gathers eggs and 
other produce directly from the farm, prevail east and south 
of a line drawn from Galveston to Chicago through Texarkana, 
Ark., Springfield, Mo., and St. Louis. North and west of this 
line the huckster is almost unknown. 
The huckster wagons may be of the following types: 
1—An extension of the local grocery store, trading merchan- 
dise for eggs. 2—An independent traveling peddler. 38—A 
cash dealer who buys his load, and hauls it to the nearest 
city where he peddles the produce from house to house or 
sells it to city grocers. 4—A representative of the local 
produce buyer. 5—A fifth style of egg wagon does not visit 
the farm at all, but is a system of rural freight service run 
by a produce buyer for the purpose of collecting the eggs 
from country stores. 
As far as the quality of product and advantage to the farmer 
is concerned, the fourth style of huckster is preferable. This 
style exists chiefly in Indiana and Michigan, and the better 
settled regions of Kentucky and Tennessee. The writer found 
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