AMERICAN TOBACCO TYPES, USES, AND MARKETS 6/7 
stretch. Necessarily some buyers have better access to the lot than 
others. Not all buyers are on the lookout for the same grades of 
tobacco. The lot being sold may be of excellent quality for certain 
purposes but not of the character desired by the buyers closest to it 
though very much desired by others buyers down the line. If, by 
reason of his inability to make a close examination of the tobacco 
being sold, a buyer fails to recognize its true character and value, then 
no criticism attaches to him if his bid is needlessly low, but a severe 
loss may have been inflicted upon the grower. 
Similar results may come from trivial things. Men in the tobacco 
trade have remarked that a water boy may cause one or two important 
buyers to turn from the sale momentarily, and in that short interval 
some farmer’s tobacco may be knocked down for much less than its 
real value. 
In justice to the buyers it should be said that many of these varia- 
tions in price are inadvertent. Many times when their attention is 
called, after the sale, to what was manifestly an error in buying, 
resulting in an unduly low price, they voluntarily raise the price. 
On every market, however, there are speculative buyers who live by 
purchasing occasional lots that are underpriced through errors of 
judgment on the part of the larger buyers, and reselling them. 
That such errors occur and are fairly numerous is evidenced on every 
market by the number of growers who reject a sale, put the tobacco 
back in line, and resell at a higher price. Instances of the same 
tobacco sold at two, three, or even four times its first price are common 
and are striking evidence that undue hazards beset the tobacco grower 
in marketing his crop. (See also Tobacco Inspection and Market 
News, p. 68.) ; 
On the other hand it must be said that frequently farmers reject 
sales in the mistaken belief that the price is below the market for the 
grade involved. Often the resale price is lower than that offered on 
the first sale. It is generally true that when the prevailing market 
average is reasonably satisfactory to growers—high enough, that is, 
to encourage equal or increased acreage the following season—growers 
will accept without complaint an offer on a particular lot that is in 
line or is believed to be in line with the average price paid for other 
tobacco of the same grade. For example, assuming a general average 
for all grades of type 11, old-belt flue-cured tobacco, of 18 cents per 
pound, a farmer may deliver some tobacco of low grade that sells for 
only 10 cents per pound. If he feels that 10 cents is about the average 
price paid for other tobacco of the same grade, he is much less likely 
to complain than if he feels that his tobacco is better than the general 
run of 10-cent tobacco. But until recent years growers have not 
had the opportunity to obtain an authentic, unbiased determination 
of grade, or specific information as to ruling prices for the various 
grades. This consideration, together with the hazards of tobacco 
marketing already alluded to, led to the development of a new phase 
in auction-warehouse marketing, namely, a governmental tobacco 
inspection and price-reporting service. 7 
. Among the disadvantages of the auction system of marketing are 
the heavy buying expenses entailed. The larger manufacturers, in 
particular, must maintain extensive corps of buyers and other em- 
ployees in the field during the marketing season. There are approxi- 
mately 75 auction markets for flue-cured tobacco alone. Those in 
