168 Wisconsin State Agricultural Societal 
ing are so small, that as a rule the profits are more than counter¬ 
balanced by the losses of the shipper, with his imperfect knowledge. 
At least my experience has been, that I have never made it a suc¬ 
cess in shipping flour instead of selling my wheat. True, I have 
the advantage of a home-market, the large number of mills that 
are available within a short distance usually give us the Milwaukee 
price for our wheat; but there are other commodities to which his 
recommendations are applicable, more or less, to all farmers 
throughout the State, to deal directly as much as possible with the 
consumer. 1 have found this the case with many things, especial¬ 
ly clover-seed. I have shipped large quanties of clover-seed directly 
to the consumer. And here let me illustrate the difficulties we 
have to submit to—the impositions that are put upon us where we 
ship to our agents in Chicago. For the purpose of catching them 
I have shipped the surplus that I had to commission men, invari¬ 
ably shipping an odd number of bags and watching the market, 
I have found a report of ten to fifteen cents less a bushel than the 
market report. I would notify that man of the fact, and that I 
would have no further need of his services. I have found men who 
would make correct reports, and what they were selling for. Many 
of our smaller articles can be sold direct, or at least let them pass 
through as few hands as possible. There is another thing besides 
wheat that I have never been able to ship directly without the aid 
of the commission men, and that is the large clip of wool I 
grow. I shipped to Justice & Bateman, of Philadelphia. My 
friend, a commission man, shipped at the same time wool not worth 
as much as mine and received at the same time two cents a pound 
more than mine sold for; because the commission man was a regular 
shipper he could obtain more than I obtained for mine. As a rule 
I have succeeded admirably with my wool, but I have generally 
sold it at home, and in many cases directly to the manufacturer. 
Those are the two articles I have never made it pay for me to ship— 
two staple articles—but in other things I have succeeded in dealing 
directly with the consumer, and largely to my advantage. 
