farmers -will not hoop ;i price agreement ! 
For instance, we have had a group of 
farmers agree to stand firmly for 00 cents 
a basket for good tomatoes. Our stoek 
remained unsold for hours, while we saw 
other lots melting away, only to tind Inter 
that farmers were selling three baskets 
for a dollar! These men wanted to be 
fair, but they lost their nerve and let the 
buyers bluff them. It was my observa¬ 
tion that when the men with “sky" and 
“witch" at the tail end of their names 
agreed not to oiler more than a certain 
price they had a sort of rough organiza¬ 
tion which held them pretty dose to their 
agreement. Of course there ran he no 
government regulations which can over¬ 
come such operations. Here is a case 
where in; mini <lo it mtruclrcx. The <|ties- 
tion is. how? 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
A Night on the Market 
Fart III 
As 1 see it, there are two big problems 
underlying our market trouble. Why 
should there be any surplus of food, and 
why do wo continue to use the middle¬ 
men? As between producer and con¬ 
sumer there is no surplus. If all had 
access- to such goods ns we produce at a 
fair price there would not be enough to 
go around. Production is not in advance 
of consumption, but it is ahead of dis¬ 
tribution. Most people do not seem to 
realize the difference involved in that, 
statement. Production has increased, but 
methods of distributing food to consumers 
have not kept up. I shall not attempt to 
discuss the question as applied to the 
nation at large. What I know about is 
the Paterson market, and 1 think that is 
typical of most others. That market is 
tilled up for various reasons. The towns 
and cities in the coal mining regions arc 
buying less of our kind of produce than 
ever before. The long strike keeps money 
out of circulation, for if miners do not 
earn wages they cannot spend. In for¬ 
mer years, when these miners were draw¬ 
ing good wages, tons of produce, from 
New Jersey would be sent into the coal 
valleys for sale. Little or none of that 
is being done this year, while on the other 
band carloads of stuff which, in good 
years would be sent to the coal towns are 
now being dumped into our markets. 
Then there seems to have been a craze in 
recent years to plant tarty varieties of 
fruits, like apples and vegetables. Many 
fanners have been taught that, they can 
get these early crops off in time to plant 
another late crop, thus making the soil 
do double duty. The result is that this 
early stuff is picked hurriedly and 
dumped into market when most of it 
should be kept back. A good example of 
this is the Wealthy apple. Millions of 
trees of this variety have been planted 
during the past 10 years. Many of them 
were used as “tillers." which arc expected 
to give an iuconie while the standards are 
coming into bearing. Now these trees are 
coming into fruiting like a great army. 
We have more of this variety than the 
market can absorb, and our people are 
sending big. little, culls and all, in a 
perfect flood. Of course this injures the 
sale not only of Woaltny. but of all other 
early varieties. Then again, we must ad¬ 
mit that all this teaching of “two blades 
of grass’’ has had its effect. Take the 
case of potatoes. If you will take certi¬ 
fied seed, soak it to prevent scab, plant in 
suitable soil, use a scientific fertilizer, 
spray fully and cultivate properly, there 
is no question but that we will increase 
the yield. As a result of doing some of 
these things I have this year the largest 
yield we have ever grown. Now if any 
large number of farmers make use of this 
knowledge about crop production, it is 
easy to see fbat the total crop will be in¬ 
creased. even though few new farmers 
enter the business. This is just what has 
happened, not only with potatoes hut 
many other crops. We have learned how 
to produce more efficiently, but methods 
of distribution have not gained along 
with crop production, so that the more 
we produce the worse off we are. until 
we call get more of our food directly into 
the consumer's hands. Another tiling 
which has helped make this market sur¬ 
plus is the auto truck. This wonderful 
convenience and help has marie it too easy 
to get goods into market, livery farmer 
who buys a truck feels that bo must raise 
a little more in order to keep the machine 
going. When horses were used entirely 
for the slow, laborious haul to market, we 
knew’ it would not pay to send the culls 
and scrub stuff, and wo kept most of it at 
home. Now. with the rapid truck on 
hand, we till out the load with all sorts 
of stuff, trusting to luck and the peddlers 
to sell it for something. It simply stuffs 
the market full, and. like the weakest 
link in the chain, decides the strength of 
prices. 
* » * * # 
I am aware that it is popular with 
many to attribute our market misfor¬ 
tunes to the Administration, the govern¬ 
ment. the tariff or some other malign in¬ 
fluence outside of ourselves. It is en¬ 
tirely true that those who control the gov¬ 
ernment have ever shown more considera¬ 
tion for other industries than for farm¬ 
ing, but the fundamental troubles, ill our 
own case at least, may be fairly attrib¬ 
uted to our own economic mistakes. For 
example, take our night on the Paterson 
market. There was too much stuff for 
the distribution which was offered us. If 
all the culls and “drops" and inferior 
stuff had been left at home, prices would 
have run 50 per cent higher, and we 
Would all have received more money for a 
smaller load! When tve dumped that 
surplus upon the market it was as if we 
had handed a club to the peddlers and 
buyers and said to them : 
“Here is a club; please knock us 
down.” . 
Thomas and I were as guilty as the 
rest, for we had our share of poor stuff, 
which we took a chance ou selling. If 
Volt ask why we carried it, I presume we 
shall have to say that we knew the rest 
would all do it, ami so we followed the 
crowd. If someone had been on the mar¬ 
ket that night with money enough to buy 
up the entire tomato offering at 50 cents, 
• very buyers would have come to that 
price—and made money enough on his 
sales. And. I regret to say, that, some 
Hupmotilc 
