VOL. LXXXI 
I’ubHslied Weekly by Tile Rural Publishing Co., 
333 W. 30ih St.. New York. Price One Dollar a Year. 
NEW YORK, OCTOBER 2S, 1922 
Entered as Second-Class Matter. June 26. IS79. at the Post 
Ofti-'« at New York, N. Y-. under the Act of March 3. 1 <79. 
No. 4714 
-r*.. . ...» ► 
A Fair View of the Farmer’s Position 
Small Income and High Costs. Conditions Shaping For Improvement. 
Part I. 
A GENERAL COMPLAINT.—^The farmers’ com¬ 
plaints are rising in general chorus from Main > 
to Oregon and from Texas to tlie Dakotas. Cana¬ 
dian producers sing to the same tune. The latest 
farmer heard from happens to he an elderly and 
discouraged individual from Southern Pennsylvania, 
and his summary will answer for the rest, for they 
all talk alike this season. “There is nothing for the 
Some of the farmers in every line are in a had way 
because they have been hit more than once in recent 
years following the boom of wartime and after. 
WHERE TIIE PINCH COMES.—The prices them¬ 
selves do not look so had, compared with old times. 
It is the high cost of production and marketing that 
hurts most. The small farmer who lives where he 
can take his own stuff to market cau hardly realize 
more of the costs and drawbacks of indirect mar¬ 
keting, hut not like the distant producer. The hay 
farmer of the Southwest is getting less than one- 
half of the wholesale city price. Cost of baling, 
loading, freight and marketing is as much as the 
local price of $7 to $10 per ton for Alfalfa hay. The 
Idaho potato grower gets about one-third the Chicago 
price. Iu the big specialized producing sections it 
Feeding the Poultry on a Vermont Form. Photo by William />. Goodwill. Xeic York 
farmer up our way.” ho declares. “Everything we 
sell has gone down and everything we buy stays up.” 
The complaints are the same in substance, whether 
the product Is grain and hay of the corn belt or 
Canada, live stock of the Rocky Mountain section, 
milk in the Northeast.'onions in Middle West, cab¬ 
bage in Wisconsin, apples in Western New York, 
cantaloupes in Central and Southern California, 
melons in Georgia or sweet potatoes in Alabama. 
the handicaps which hang alHuit the neck of the 
distant producer, who represents just about one- 
half of the stuff sold: more than that with some 
products. The nearby farmer may public his goods 
ami get the consumers’ price, not feeling greatly in 
terms of cash" the cost of labor of himself and his 
teaui. or he may sell at the nearest store, losing only 
a quarter or a third of the price, and saving much 
time. If lie ships on commission he begins to feel 
is hard to shorten the chain of middlemen. Handi¬ 
caps of the distant producer are often balanced by 
lower cost, high yield or superior quality, but there 
are handicaps just the same. 
TIIE MARKETING CHAIN.—There is the coun¬ 
try buyer who picks up the stuff at the'fn'nn. He 
has to sell it to a local shipping firm of dealers, 
brokers or carlot assemblers, who alone have the 
orders from the city, the storehouse, the credit, the 
