OUTLETS AND METHODS OF SALE FOR SHIPPERS. 13 
and the average producer will have to utilize some of the present 
machinery. There is much misunderstanding and confusion in the 
use of the terms which designate the different middlemen. In this 
bulletin an attempt is made to employ these terms according to their 
most common usage, in order to have definite expressions with 
which to work. 
The middlemen to or through whom growers can sell direct may 
be enumerated as follows: Country merchants, country collecting 
agents, country buyers of special products, traveling buyers, private 
exchanges, operators, brokers, commission men, auctions, and retailers. 
SALES TO COUNTRY MERCHANTS. 
The primary advantage of dealing with a country merchant is 
that the farmer can trade with him in person and is more apt to 
know the financial and moral responsibility of the man to whom he 
is selling. The country merchant usually will purchase poultry and 
poultry products, farm butter, wool, hides, or commodities produced 
on the farm in quantities not sufficiently large to constitute commer- 
cial shipments. The farmer is paid for the produce either in cash 
or with credit at the local store. Provided his purchases are large 
enough, the country merchant combines them into car lots and sells 
direct to the city trade, or disposes of them to a car-lot assembler at 
some neighboring shipping point, who concentrates these small 
shipments into car-lot quantities, selling to the city trade on his own 
account; also the country merchant may ship small lots of produce 
directly to commission houses. 
COUNTRY COLLECTING AGENTS. 
Country collecting agents, on the other hand, are the country 
dealers or buyers who go directly to the farm with their wagons, 
buying or trading for small quantities of eggs, butter, poultry, hogs, 
calves, and other farm products which they concentrate into carloads 
and ship to receivers in the city. They pay cash for the goods at the 
farm. These country collecting agents include the so-called " car-lot 
assemblers." 
LOCAL COUNTRY BUYERS OF SPECIAL PRODUCTS. 
Country buyers operate, as a rule, in districts producing large 
quantities of such specialized commodities as apples, peaches, and 
citrus fruits. They buy from the producers in car lots and ship to 
the best available markets, selling on orders or through the usual 
market channels for whatever margin they can secure. They pay 
in cash at the shipping point at the time of sale or delivery. This 
method of sale is common for tomatoes and cantaloupes in Florida, 
potatoes in Maine, watermelons in Texas, peaches in Georgia and 
Michigan, and apples in the Eastern States. 
