116 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
brought face to face with the great dis¬ 
crepancy between the prices paid by the 
consumer and the prices received by 
the producer. It is the unreasonably high 
cost of the transmission of the goods 
from producer to last buyer that bears 
heavily on both these parties, and this is 
caused principally by the number of mid¬ 
dlemen that handle the products. Too 
many parasites have a whack at it between 
the grower and the consumer, and the 
great problem before us today is to adopt 
some policy in our shipping and market¬ 
ing that will bring the producer and con¬ 
sumer into more intimate relationship. 
The question of the surplus middleman, 
the regulation of the commission mer¬ 
chant, cutting out all unnecessary han¬ 
dlers, the getting direct dealings between 
producer and consumer, are vital ques¬ 
tions of today to the Florida vegetable 
grower and trucker. We may be able to 
do a little by legislation, but our past ex¬ 
perience along that line does not afford us 
encouragement. Party prejudice and 
trust methods have to be reckoned with 
when we attempt to legislate for our¬ 
selves, as is evidenced by the long delay 
of the parcels post. Co-operative meth¬ 
ods of selling and purchasing, opening up 
direct communication between producer 
and consumer, form one way of cutting 
out the sixty per cent, toll that the mid¬ 
dlemen now exact. 
The time has come for thinking in large 
figures. In every line of industry we find 
the getting of goods to market more and 
more systematized. The producers of 
manufactured goods are leaving no stone 
unturned to cut out all unnecessary ex¬ 
pense in getting in touch with the ulti¬ 
mate consumers. They are showing us 
an object lesson in cutting down cost and 
eliminating waste at every point. But in 
that article so necessary to human life, 
fresh vegetable food, we find a wasteful 
exploitation at every point in its passage 
from producer to consumer, and a lack 
of co-operative methods of distribution. 
In the production of vegetable food there 
are large numbers employed, and nearly 
every human being is a buyer. Dealing 
direct with the consumer must be the ul¬ 
timate goal of all our efforts, whether by 
means of co-operation in shipping and 
getting in direct touch with the public mar¬ 
kets of the Northern cities, or by using 
the parcels post to a large extent. In its 
present form, the parcels post is not much 
of a help to the Florida producer. Still, 
there will be a prospective wide field here 
when the rates are lowered. This is done 
in European countries, and if possible 
there, it is surely possible here. And to 
that end, the fight for an improved par¬ 
cels post must be kept up until it is modi¬ 
fied to meet the needs of the agricultural 
producer. The dusky gentleman in the 
woodpile, in the shape of the zone system, 
must be eliminated. The express compa¬ 
nies put him there, and the food producer 
must get him out of there. Right here 
we want to remark that Uncle Sam will 
make a good partner and a good middle¬ 
man between the producer and consumer. 
He will certainly be honest and try to 
give both parties a square deal, and there 
is no reason why he should not serve his 
patrons at cost, and right along that line 
is where the vegetable grower is going to 
solve many of his present marketing dif¬ 
ficulties. Local canneries to take care of 
surplus products when a glut in the mar¬ 
ket occurred, would be a very practical 
