MARKETING PEANUTS H 
purchase the stock in the field after it has been stacked. A com- 
mission, usually 7 cents per bag, has been paid their buyers by the 
cleaners during recent seasons. Occasionally a grower ships his 
peanuts direct to a warehouseman, to be stored and sold on his 
order. 
Members of the local growers' cooperative association deliver their 
goods to the mill that cleans for the association. Upon delivery 
they are graded, an amount equal to about half the market price 
is advanced, and final payment is made after full settlement of the 
season's pool. 
GEORGIA AND ALABAMA 
In the neighborhood of most towns in which there is a shelling or 
crushing mill the bulk of the crop of independent farmers is sold for 
cash direct to that plant. Producers under obligations to local mer- 
chants usually sell their entire crop to these merchants, since as a 
rule the latter will pay a cash price equal to that offered by the 
nearest sheller for all peanuts in excess of those required to settle the 
accounts, or will allow as much as $5 per ton more if the grower is 
willing to have the returns apply on future trade. 
Many small country merchants are equipped with storage space 
and make a business of buying for cash the peanuts grown in their 
vicinities. They may do this as a matter of private speculation 
or in the capacity of agent for a shelling or crushing mill or for a 
broker at some other point. A commission of $2 to $3 per ton is 
paid local agents for assembling carlots and shipping them from out- 
lying points. When the buyer takes care of all storing, loading, 
and handling charges, the commission is usually $2.75 to $3 per ton. 
If the sale is for goods which the merchant has purchased for his 
own account the price is usually arranged by telephone or telegraph, 
and the merchant is allowed to draw on sight draft attached to bill 
of lading for not over 80 per cent of the selling price, immediately 
upon shipment. The buyer remits the balance of the price by check 
when the shipment has been received and the weights confirmed. 
This system of marketing peanuts differs in no essential respect from 
the method employed in marketing cotton in the same area. 
Members of the growers' cooperative association deliver their 
peanuts when directed by the association to a warehouse or to the 
cars for shipment elsewhere. Preliminary advances of one-half to 
two- thirds the value of the peanuts are made upon delivery; final 
p'ayments are concluded after the season's pool has been settled. 
In a few counties in the Southeast, farmers' stock peanuts have 
at times been marketed through the medium of a " sales day," a 
scheme copied from the hog-sales day. The local banker, the county 
agricultural agent, or large merchants, are chiefly responsible for the 
gathering. All the peanut farmers in the county at least are notified 
that a peanut-sales day is to be held at some central point, usually 
the county seat. They are urged to bring their peanuts to town on 
that day, with the assurance that a number of responsible buyers 
will be present. The bringing together of a considerable quantity 
of peanuts makes it worth while for near-by shelling plants, brokers, 
and independent buyers to be represented, and the presence of a 
number of buyers should create a competitive market. This auction 
method of sale ; however, is seldom utilized. 
