Country Hides and Shins. 
47 
consumer or tanner, they pass through many hands, each one of 
which exacts its toll. 
The marketing of country hides nnd skins is characterized by a 
large amount of lost motion. Many of the present systems support 
expensive, nonessential, wasteful, profit-absorbing, and speculating 
intermediaries, which operate, possibly unintentionally but inevi- 
tably, to suppress this branch of the industry and to discourage the 
quality of workmanship upon which values so largely depend. The 
most direct and practicable manner of marketing by the producer 
should result in the greatest profits to him. 
COMPARISON OF THREE PREVAILING METHODS. 
The relative efficiency of the three prevailing methods of market- 
ing domestic hides and skins is illustrated by figure 44. The move- 
ment to market is shown by lines, the heavier ones of which show the 
course taken by the greatest number of hides. The circles with X 
inscribed represent agencies whose services are considered by many 
producers, dealers, and tanners as not essential to economic hide mar- 
keting. The operations between hide dealers of equal importance, 
which often reach considerable proportions and are considered by 
many as uneconomic, and those between tanners, which are negligible, 
are not shown in the diagrams. 
The extravagant system generally followed in marketing country 
hides is illustrated by A in figure 44. 
B in figure 44 illustrates the direct or consignment method of 
marketing, which is employed and strongly advocated by some 
country-hide producers and dealers. In this method, the local dealer 
who was indicated in A as nonessential is retained because in many 
cases he performs and, until a better trade understanding is reached 
between producers and large dealers, will continue to perform a real 
service. He acts not as a speculator but principally as the agent of 
the producer who is not familiar with methods of marketing or who 
desires to be relieved of personal responsibility in preparing and mar- 
keting his products. 
C in figure 44 shows the agencies and channels used by the large 
packers in marketing their hides and skins. The superiority and 
advantages of this system are apparent at a glance. There is no lost 
motion, and no opportunity for speculation at the expense of the 
producer. The only intermediary is the broker or the tanner's buyer, 
and even their services are often dispensed with. Hy this method the 
cost of marketing is negligible as compared with the other two meth- 
ods. In it the producer — that is, the packer — participates much more 
fully in the market prices of his products. 
The direct or consignment method illustrated by B in figure 44 
eliminates much lost motion, much of the speculation, and many of 
