CHAPTER XVI

DISADVANTAGES OF KEEPING LIVE STOCK

(1) Keeping live stock increases the capital required to operate a given area of land, especially where animals are kept in connection with the production of hay and grain. Not only must there be capital with which to purchase animals, but usuallymore is invested in buildings. In a self-contained farm—that is, one which raises sufficient food for the requirements of the live stock—ten dollars an acre may be considered a moderate investment for animals. If, however, the plan is to raise only the coarse feed, while the necessary grain as well as other concentrates is largely purchased, a farm may easily carry from $25 to $35 worth of live stock per acre. Lack of capital is one of the most potent influences in preventing a larger production of animals and animal products. Cattle paper, or notes given to secure money for the purchase of fattening animals, is a common bank asset in the feeding districts of the central West.

(2) The very perishable nature of animals entails a great risk in the investment of capital in live stock. Not only the products of a single year, but the growth of a number of years, may be suddenly swept away by disease. This may include the crops of several years, thus destroying capital invested in the production of the cropsas well as the capital originally invested in the animals. Many a farmer has seen the gradual accumulations of years rapidly melt away in the presence of some contagious disease. Tuberculosis in cattle, cholera in hogs and liver rot in sheep are striking examples of diseases that have caused the farmers of this country untold losses.

(3) When an animal has been properly fattened he must be sold. If held for any great length of time, not only is there a constant outlay for food to maintain the animal, but the condition of the animal may actually deteriorate. Hence it is not possible to hold animals for a better market for a long period of time, as is possible in the case of the cereal grains.

(4) Serious losses may occur where profit was expected through a rise in the price of foodstuffs. Scarcity in food supplies, due to an unfavorable season, often compels the stockman to sacrifice animals that he has been raising for two or three years. It is sometimes asserted that, although society suffers from short crops, the farmer is benefited,because the increase in price is greater than the decrease in yield. One year, for example, the decrease in the production of maize was 30%, while the increase in price was 50%. If, therefore, the crop had been sold it would have brought more than the crop of the previous year. The farmers, however, require about 80% of the maize crop in the production of their live stock, so that when there was a decrease of 30% in the yield of maize, many had none to sell, while others had to purchase maize at increased prices or use other crops, such as oats, which they might otherwise have sold. Still others would be compelled to sell, at reduced prices, their partially fattened animals. There is a constant fluctuation in the price of animals and animal products, due to variation in yield and hence in price of food supplies. It requires continual vigilance on the part of the stockman to secure food supplies at such cost as will enable him to secure a profitable return from his animals.

CHAPTER XVIRETURNS FROM ANIMALS

In any well-considered plan of farm operations it is essential to have some basis for estimating the amount of food required to carry live stock through the year in order to know, on the one hand, what portion of the crops raised are available for sale and, on the other hand, what food supplies must be purchased. A requisite of any successful farm enterprise is a proper consideration of these market conditions. While domestic animals consume a variety of foods, and each class of animals has special food requirements, the basis of calculation of the needed supplies is fortunately not complicated. Twenty-five pounds of dry matter are required per day for each thousand pounds of live weight of horses, cattle and sheep, and for swine about 40 pounds for each thousand pounds of live weight. It may be more convenient to calculate the food requirement of swine on the basis ofincrease in live weight, allowing five pounds of dry matter for each pound of increase. Some further details as to food requirements will be found in the paragraphs which follow.

COST OF PRODUCING HOGS

Pigs possess two characteristics which make them unique among domestic animals. They consume concentrated and easily digested foods only, and they produce nothing but meat, fat and bristles. Cattle furnish milk and hides; sheep, wool, hides and sometimes milk; fowls furnish eggs and feathers. On account of their limited range of usefulness and because of the high value of much of the food consumed, it would not be possible to rear swine economically were it not for their prolificacy and the fact that they are employed largely as scavengers. Many cattle are fattened without direct profit. The indirect profit comes from the sale of the pigs which have followed the cattle. It is customary to mature one hog with little or no additional food while fatteningtwo steers. In many well-known ways, pigs consume products which would otherwise be wasted. This is especially true in the more densely settled sections of the world.

On account of their prolificacy, the returns obtained for the amount of capital invested is greater than in the case of sheep, cattle or horses. Ten sows, worth $100 to $150, are sufficient to produce 100 pigs; 75 to 80 ewes, worth from $300 to $500, are required to produce an equal number of lambs; 110 cows, worth $4,500 to $6,000, to produce 100 calves; and 200 mares, worth from $20,000 to $30,000, to guarantee 100 foals. To put the matter in another way, the capital invested in swine may be reproduced in the offspring ten times in one year; the capital invested in horses not more than once in five years.

In general, 500 pounds of maize will produce 100 pounds of pork, which is equivalent to eleven pounds of pork from a bushel. Since hogs are so largely produced from maize, the price of maize and the price of pork are very closely related. For example,if maize is worth fifty cents a bushel, the grain required to produce a pound of increase in live weight will cost about 5 cents; if 40 cents a bushel, 4 cents; if 30 cents a bushel, 3 cents; and so on.

COST OF PRODUCING SHEEP

In the classic investigations by Lawes and Gilbert, food containing 100 pounds of dry matter produced a live-weight increase of nine pounds in steers and 11 pounds in sheep. At the Wisconsin station, sheep required less food than steers per pound of gain. During rapid fattening of sheep 500 pounds of clover hay and 400 pounds of maize may produce 100 pounds of increase in live weight. While swine require a less weight of food for a pound of increase than sheep, on account of the more digestible character of the food eaten, yet the Wisconsin station found that the expense of producing a pound of increase was less in sheep on account of the less expensive character of the food.

MEAT AND MILK PRODUCTION COMPARED

A summary of the investigations of American experiment stations shows that 100 pounds of dry matter produced ten pounds of increase in live weight of steers. The same quantity of food when fed to milch cows produced 74 pounds of milk, plus one pound of increase in live weight. This 74 pounds of milk contained 3-1/4 pounds of fat. In general, therefore, the food required to produce a pound of butter fat is about three times that required to produce a pound of increase in steers.

COST OF STEER FEEDING

The fattening of beef animals is largely conducted by farmers who make a specialty of it. This is particularly true in the so-called corn belt. Into this region are gathered the two and three-year-old and, more rarely, yearling steers, many of which have been reared in Texas or in the mountain states where the supply of maize is not sufficiently ample to fatten them. These are placed in paddocks with open sheds, wherethey are fed from 90 to 150 days, after which they are sent to market for slaughter. The food consists usually of maize fodder, maize stover, hay, maize (usually in the ear), a little bran, linseed or cottonseed oil meal. The ration per day during rapid fattening is about 20 pounds of dry matter per 1,000 pounds of live weight, containing 16 pounds of digestible substance, of which 1.25 to 1.75 is digestible protein. One hundred pounds of increase may be obtained under average conditions from 150 pounds stover, 325 pounds of hay, 775 pounds of maize and 75 pounds of cottonseed meal.

Great variations will occur, however, depending upon the condition of the animals at the beginning of the feeding period and the degree of fatness or finish to which the animals are brought before placing upon the market. In any case, the food consumed will cost more than the value of the increase. The only way that steers can be profitably fattened is by increasing the value per pound of the animal. Thus an 800-pound steer may be purchased at five cents perpound, or $40. After feeding, say 150 days, he may weigh 1,100 pounds, when to bring a profitable return he should sell for 6 cents a pound, or $65. This is a gain of $25, eight of which came from the increase in value of the original 800 pounds. Usually steers cannot be fattened profitably unless there is an increase of at least three-quarters of a cent per pound in the value of the animals and then, as previously explained, only in connection with the hogs which follow them.

COST OF PRODUCING MILK AND BUTTER FAT

Well-selected and properly fed cows may produce 240 pounds of butter fat annually. The amount of fat obtained will depend upon the richness of the milk. Thus, 8,000 pounds of 3% milk, 6,000 pounds of 4% milk, or a trifle less than 5,000 pounds of 5% milk, will give this quantity of butter fat. These are customary returns from different types of cows.

If each cow in the herd is dry for six weeks each year the daily average of thecows actually milked will be three-quarters of a pound of butter fat. There are herds which make an average of nine-tenths of a pound of butter fat per day, but to secure this result requires superior cattle, careful feeding and more than ordinary care.

The standard ration for milch cows weighing from 1,000 to 1,200 pounds is 25 pounds of dry matter, two-thirds of which is digestible. The ration should contain not less than two pounds of digestible protein. In ordinary practice, about ten pounds of the dry matter of the ration is obtained from maize silage, nine pounds from hay and about six pounds from grain or other concentrates. In general, this is obtained by feeding 35 pounds of maize silage, ten pounds of hay and seven to eight pounds of concentrates. The silage may be estimated at one-tenth to one-eighth of a cent a pound, hay at from one-fourth to one-half cent and concentrates at from three-quarters to one and one-quarter cents per pound, varying, of course, with the different sections of the country. The amount of food needed willvary somewhat with the size of the animals, but will depend much more largely upon the amount of milk and butter fat given. While maintaining substantially the general average just given for the whole herd, it is the practice of careful feeders to vary the amount of concentrates fed to each individual in accordance with the amount of butter fat or milk given.

Mr. Gabriel Hiester, Harrisburg, Pa., graduate of the Pennsylvania State College, for many years trustee of the college and president of the State Horticultural Society, had a beautiful farm home near Harrisburg. During the first twenty years in bearing his orchard, of which one-fourth the trees were unprofitable varieties, returned an average of $80 per acre with apples selling at 60 cents to $1 per bushel. Mr. Hiester believed, with a proper selection of varieties and a favorable location, that any well-managed orchard can be made to do much better.

Dr. J. H. Funk, Boyertown, Pa., graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, 1865, farmers institute lecturer, former state pomologist, has 50 acres of apples and peaches. Returns from his plantings begun in 1896 are so phenomenal that he is afraid to permit the publication of his profits. It is known, however, that he has sold $5,000 each of peaches and apples in one year.

COST OF MAINTAINING WORK HORSES

At the Minnesota station, the total cost of feeding and maintaining a farm work horse for one year was estimated to be from $75 to $90, of which about $20 was charged for interest and depreciation. On the basis of 3.3 hours as the length of the working day, the cost per horse per hour was estimated to be 7-1/2 cents. At the Ohio state university, it was found that four horses weighing about 1,400 pounds were chosen to perform 2,185 hours of labor during one year, while under like conditions four horses, weighing about 200 pounds less, worked on an average but 1,641 hours each. For each secular day,therefore, the former worked about 7-1/2 hours, while the latter were employed but five and one-half hours. The cost of food was estimated at $54; cost of shoeing, repairs of harness and stable supplies at $6.50; and the cost of feeding, grooming and cleaning of stables at $23.50, or a total cost of $84 per year. Nothing was charged for interest or depreciation, but the expense of feeding and caring for three colts was included in the estimates given. The annual expense of maintaining a horse was practically the same in both states, but the cost per hour of labor performed was less because of the possibility of employing the horses at productive labor a larger portion of the time. Too much emphasis cannot be placed upon the need of planning a farm organization which will give continuous employment to horses as well as to men in order to realize the most profitable returns. An industrial system that makes it necessary to maintain work animals three days in order to secure one days work falls far short of an ideal.

CHAPTER XVIIFARM LABOR

The problem of farm labor demands thoughtful and frank consideration. Since work is an essential element in the production of all wealth, it follows that every industry has its labor problem. The adjustment of labor to the production of the various forms of wealth must ever constitute one of the most important problems in any organized society. It is often remarked that the labor problem is the chief difficulty in farming. In a certain sense this is true, since work is a primary element in the production of agricultural as well as all other wealth. It is not true, however, that the problem of labor is more difficult or more intricate than that of other industries. In fact, that problem is less delicate than in some other occupations, because farming is less industrialized.

It is not possible to settle once for all the problem of labor for any occupation, sincechanging conditions will give rise to new questions or new phases of the old problem. Moreover, the problem of labor on the farm will grow more difficult as farming becomes more specialized and as the methods of production become more complex.

However, the labor problem on the farm is different from that in the manufacturing industries or in trade and transportation. This chapter will not concern itself with an attempt to settle the farm labor problem, but will undertake to state the character of some of the differences between it and other forms of labor and to discuss some of the changes in recent years.

A large proportion of farm work is done by the farm owner, or renter, and his family. There is not much opportunity to profit by the labor of other persons. In 1900 there were in the United States 1,812 industrial establishments each of which employed between 500 and 1,000 persons, while there were 675 establishments each of which had more than one thousand employees. In the same year there were 5,739,657 farms, whichemployed in the aggregate 4.4 millions of people, not including the owners of the farms. Moreover, over one-half of the 4.4 million persons thus employed were members of the families of the farmer. In other words, aside from members of the family, there was less than one employee to every two farmers. Since a considerable number of farmers employ more than one person, it follows that the majority of farmers employ no help other than members of the family.

In another particular farm labor differs from that of other forms of labor even more widely. There are sociologic as well as economic questions involved. Baldly stated, custom permits, and necessity often requires, the laborer to eat at the same table with the farm owner and in other particulars he mingles intimately with the farmers family. In all its bearings, this is a very important fact. It constitutes one of the greatest difficulties in the problem of securing suitable farm help. Industrial corporations employ as common laborers largely Italians, Hungarians,Poles and negroes. The English, the Irish, the German, the Swede and the Norwegian have been readily received and assimilated in the American farming communities. The peoples of Eastern and Southern Europe are often criticized because they do not become farm laborers. That they do not is in large part due to the fact that the farm hand is usually a member of the farmers family. Thus the supply of common labor which is today used by the rest of the industrial world is not open to the farmer.

Farming differs from some other occupations in that it does not ordinarily offer the laborer much opportunity for advancement. The fireman on a railway train becomes the engineer; the brakeman becomes a conductor. There are opportunities in many establishments for the advancement of the industrious and clever. A man may enter their service with the hope of being able to marry and support a family. On the other hand, all our land laws are based upon the idea that each farm should be ofsufficient size to support only one family. Where it does support two families, the relation is usually that of landlord and tenant. The farm laborer, therefore, must look upon his employment as more or less temporary. The young man who intends to become a farmer will find employment upon the farm a desirable if not essential preparation for his future occupation.

The introduction of farm machinery has had the effect of increasing the price of farm labor while at the same time decreasing the amount of labor needed. The reason is that the introduction, not alone of farm machinery, but all forms of machinery, has made mans labor much more efficient than formerly. Farm wages have doubled since the introduction of horse-drawn machinery. The labor income in the different sections of the United States is influenced by the extent and efficiency with which machinery is used. The relation of labor income to the use of horse power is shown by the following table taken from a recent census:

INFLUENCE OF FARM MACHINERY AS SHOWN BYTHE RELATION OF LABOR INCOMETO HORSES AND MULES.

INFLUENCE OF FARM MACHINERY AS SHOWN BY

THE RELATION OF LABOR INCOME

TO HORSES AND MULES.

In one of the states of the South Atlantic division the average price of farm labor, without board, was $12 per month, while in one of the states of the western division the price on the same date was $31. Why? Because in the latter case a mans labor was more productive. In the South Atlantic division, in producing the chief crops cotton and maize, a man uses one mule in preparing and cultivating the soil. In the western division plowing and harrowing with six-horse teams is common and nine-horse teams are not unusual. The cotton picker in one day will be able to gather not to exceed 300 pounds of seed cotton, worth not more than$15. The western wheat will be harvested by a machine drawn by 28 horses. In the same time four men with this outfit will cut and thresh 700 bushels of wheat, worth $500.

When the threshing machine was first introduced in Ohio, it was stubbornly opposed by all farm laborers. They claimed it, says Bateman, as a right to thresh with a flail, and regarded the introduction of machinery to effect the same object in a few days which would require their individual exertion during the whole winter, not only as an invasion of a time-honored custom, but as absolutely depriving them of the means of obtaining an honest livelihood. At a later date, when a reaper had been introduced into a field of ripe wheat as a matter of experiment only, every one of the harvest hands deliberately marched out of the field and told the proprietor that he might secure his crop as best he could, that the threshing machine had deprived them of their regular winter work twenty years ago and now the reaper would deprive them of the pittance they otherwisecould earn during harvest. How short-sighted they were! No class gained so much from the introduction of labor-saving machinery as did those who did the labor. The reason for the increase in well-being, the reason society enjoys luxuries and comforts beyond the fondest dreams of former generations, is due to the fact that the labor of each man has been made so much more effective through these labor-saving devices. The humblest citizen shares in this improvement. Not all share alike and not all share equitably, but each generation sees its members sharing more equitably than those of any generation which preceded it.

The proposition is an extremely simple one. If a man produces just enough food for himself and family, he will have nothing for clothing, shelter, or education. If, however, a man produces four times as much food as he and his family consume, he may exchange one-fourth for shelter, one-fourth for clothing and have remaining a fourth for education, and recreation or savings. This is only another way of sayingthat the greater the amount of any useful commodity produced by a single days labor the larger will be the laborers income or wages.

Although the increase in intensive agriculture and the diversification in farming tend to increase the need of farm laborers, the introduction of farm machinery has much more than offset this demand. The tendency of farm laborers to become farm tenants; or, to state it in other words, the tendency of landowners to rent their land rather than to continue to operate it themselves, is not without its influence upon the labor problem.

The invention and introduction of farm machinery has accentuated the difficulty of keeping the farm laborer continuously employed. The decrease in the demand for farm labor and the increasing lack of uniformity in the amount required have caused a gradual depletion of the smaller villages and hamlets which were a source of labor supply during harvest and other busy seasons.

The problem of keeping labor continuously employed has always been a difficult one on the farm, because of the change of seasons and because of the variations in the weather from day to day. There is a wide difference between those industries which are carried on within doors and farming, which is subject to the caprices of the weather. Natural causes produce tremendous variations in the return for labor. For example, in 1901 there were produced in the aggregate 3,006 million bushels of wheat, maize and oats, while in 1902 there were harvested 4,180 million bushels. Here is an increase of over a thousand million bushels. The same farmers tilled the same soil in the same way as far as natural causes would allow, and yet there was a difference in result amounting to 39 per cent. A variation of one hundred million bushels of wheat from year to year, due to climatic conditions solely, is not at all unusual.

The manufacturer also has far greater control of his labor. When it rains, he has a roof over his workmen, and hence thework is not interrupted. When it grows dark, he turns on the light and the work continues. If it gets cold, he lights the fire and still the work continues comfortably. It is not so in agriculture. There is a great variation in the working efficiency of men employed in farming. In a certain locality there were twenty-one days of rain in the thirty-one days of May. The next year between June 5 and September 5 in the same locality there was not half an inch of rainfall at any one time.

What is true of labor is also true of machinery. The farmer must purchase machinery which he can use only a few days in the year, while the manufacturer, for the most part, employs his machinery continuously, sometimes day and night. While natural causes prevent the farmer from using the same business methods, or from being able to calculate his profits with the same precision as is possible by those following manufacturing and mercantile pursuits, it is nevertheless important that farming should be planned to avoid, as faras possible, the influence of natural causes. Certain kinds of farming are less dependent upon natural causes than others. Wisdom and foresight can do much to avoid, in all farming, untoward influences. The clever farmer seldom complains about the weather.

Farm machinery has made unnecessary, and hence unprofitable, some of the labor at which children were formerly employed. In the not distant past many, perhaps most farmers, owed their prosperity in large measure to the labor of their children. A large family, especially of boys, was a valuable asset. Even a generation ago conditions were not far different, and two generations ago were quite the same as those described by Homer:

Another field rose high with waving grain:

With bended sickles stand the reaper train:

Here, stretchd in ranks, the leveld swaths are found;

Sheaves heaped on sheaves here thicken up the ground.

With sweeping stroke the mowers strow the lands;

The gathrers follow, and collect in bands:

And last the children, in whose arms are borne

(Too short to gripe them) the brown sheaves of corn.

The rustic monarch of the field descries,

With silent glee, the heaps around him rise.

A ready banquet on the turf is laid

Beneath an ample oaks expanded shade.

The victim ox the sturdy youth prepare:

The reapers due repast, the womens care.

There is also another reason why the age of the employed has been raised. It is due to the growth of higher education. Where formerly the farmers children between the ages of twelve and twenty-one did most of the farm work, now many of them at the same age are attending schools and colleges. The sons of a man, who a generation ago found no opportunity to get beyond the district school, graduate from high school and college, and thus spend most of their time in study until they are past twenty-one years of age.

Labor unions have doubtless caused a scarcity of farm labor by increasing the proportion of the created wealth which goes to the man who labors without capital. When a man can obtain fifty cents an hour for laying brick, he does not wish to workin the hay field at twenty cents an hour, even though the difference in the cost of living may in great measure offset the difference in wages.

There is a growing tendency to perform work by what is called contract labor. Thus a person may agree to weed and hoe sugar beets at a certain rate per acre. He, in turn, employs a force of cheap laborers which he sends from farm to farm to do this work. The harvesting of fruits and garden crops is not infrequently done in some such manner. In one instance a contractor of laborers of foreign birth has been furnishing them for all kinds of farm work. He keeps 20 to 40 of these laborers on a small farm, furnishing them a dwelling and selling them food supplies. Farmers telephone for help when in need. The contractor receives $1.65 for a days work and pays the laborer $1.50.

It appears from the preceding considerations that there are open to every farmer at least three methods of increasing the efficiency of farm labor. He may make every days labor more efficient by use of labor-savingmachinery and the employment of it in the most efficient manner; as, for example, using three 1,500-pound horses to his farm machinery instead of a pair of 1,200-pound horses. He may modify the character of his farming in order that profitable labor will be more continuous. He may modify the method of employing labor; as, for example, by introducing the system of contracting labor for specific purposes where feasible.

Increase in the price of farm labor is not an evil. It is an indication that labor applied to agriculture is becoming more productive and hence more profitable. Since more than one-half the labor of the farm is done by the owner and his family, the farmer is benefited through the rise in price of farm wages. The more that labor can be made to earn upon the farm, the better it will be not only for the farm owner but for society in general.

CHAPTER XVIIISHIPPING

The means of facile transportation and the machinery of trade are the need and the development of a complex civilization. The importance of these useful adjuncts of everyday life is indicated by the fact that about one-fourth of all the people engaged in gainful occupations in civilized communities are employed in them. Nevertheless the expense of transportation and trade constitutes a tax upon the consumer which it is the aim of modern methods to reduce to the lowest limits. Recent investigations indicate that for every thirteen dollars the consumer expends for farm products the producers receive six dollars. In some directions most remarkable results have been accomplished. A recent quotation on wheat per bushel was as follows: Chicago, $0.93; Antwerp, $1.04; London, $1.06; Hamburg, $1.07. Eleven to 14 cents per bushel represents the cost of haul and commissionsbetween Chicago and the European cities named. Methods of handling have been so perfected that from the time the western farmer places the bundle of wheat at the mouth of the threshing machine the grain literally flows through the channels of trade until it reaches the flour sack. On an average the English miller pays about 20 cents a bushel more for wheat than the American farmer receives for it.

The cost of distributing many other farm products is greater, although the range of distribution is much less. The cost of haulage and selling potatoes is from 25 to 50% of the retail price, while with hay it is still higher. The cost of distributing all forms of truck and market garden produce is high and often wasteful. Many attempts have been made to eliminate a part of this cost as well as to better the conditions of the supplies when they reach the consumer. While many individuals have been quite successful in dealing directly with the consumer, little has thus far been accomplishedthat affects general trade conditions. Great improvements have been made in methods of transportation and methods of preservation. Cold storage and canned goods have been the direction in which progress has been notable.

WASTEFUL METHODS OF DISTRIBUTION

Owing to customs and traditions there is frequently a great waste of effort in some of the methods of trade. The meat trade of France is an excellent illustration. Certain sections of France make a specialty of rearing cattle. At a suitable age these animals are purchased by other farmers who fatten them. Many of the small towns maintain market places at which fairs are held to facilitate these negotiations. Frequently there is a shipment from one region to another, which is conducted by a middleman. When fattened the steers are collected by a stock buyer, who may ship them to La Villette, the live stock market of Paris. Here they are placed on sale through commission men. There are the usual charges foryardage and food. After being sold the animals are driven to the slaughterhouses. The carcasses are then taken by wagon to the great market of Paris located near the center of the city. Here the retail vender of meats comes, makes his purchase, reloads the meat, which may have been unloaded less than an hour before, carries it to his shop, where the consumer seeks it. The number of people concerned and the amount of hand labor have been excessive.

Nor is the American system without its faults. The Iowa or Illinois farmer fattens cattle that may have been reared in Montana or Texas. After the stock buyer, the commission man and the stock yard company have each taken his toll, the packer ships the carcasses back to the very region where the animals were fattened, when the stockman may purchase it of the local vender of meats. The facilities and perfection with which these many transactions are accomplished is one of the wonderful sights of our country. Nevertheless the producer of meat products may well consider whethersome more economical system of distribution may not be devised.

SHIPMENTS: SOURCES OF INFORMATION

All railroad rates are now carefully supervised by the federal government and are open to the inspection of the public. Such information as is ordinarily needed may be obtained from the local station agent, who is always glad to be of service to patrons of his road. If information of a special character is required, it may be obtained by addressing the division freight agent of the railroad in the region under consideration. The name of this officer is to be found in the circulars and upon the posters of the railroad.

In addition to the freight facilities offered by any individual railroad, there are what are known as fast freight lines. These agencies enable through and prompt shipment from inland points in our own country to inland points in another. An individual railroad may operate in connection with several such agencies. A certain railroad,for example, is combined with nine fast freight lines. Freight agents of local roads in the principal towns usually represent the fast freight lines and are prepared to transact business.

In seaport cities there are firms styling themselves foreign freight contractors, outward freight agents, steamship agents, or ship brokers. These firms are prepared to quote prices on shipments to any part of the world on either regular or tramp ships. They will give freely to intending shippers full information concerning methods and conditions of shipment. There is nothing mysterious about the business of shipping farm products. The necessary details may be acquired by inquiry in the channels indicated and by a little study of the data, which will be cheerfully furnished.

RAILROAD RATES

A great many factors are involved in determining the rate which is charged for transporting different products. In a certain sense it is doubtless true that the ratecharged is based upon what the traffic will bear. The purpose here, however, is to state some of the customs which exist rather than to discuss the philosophy or justice of them.

The rate may vary with the value of the product, without any regard to the cost of the haul. Suppose the cost of shipping a ten-gallon can of fresh milk between two points to be 32 cents, the cost of shipping a similar can of cream may be 50 cents. The cost of shipping a carload of hay is less than a carload of wheat.

In some instances, zones or belts have been recognized, the rate from all towns within each zone being the same for a given product. Certain railroads centering in New York recognize four zones for the shipment of milk and cream, as follows:

It will be noticed that the size of these zones varies and may be the subject of adjustment between railroads and shippers.

While less understood by the public, railroads recognize zones or, more properly, groups of towns in making rates to them instead of from them, as in the instance above mentioned. It is possible to change the rate on a product to a given town by classifying it in another group. The rate on bran and other stock foods from central western points to certain towns in New York state has been the same as that charged to Boston, Mass., while other towns in New York not far removed have taken a lower rate.

Differential rates are recognized to be legitimate. Railroads are allowed to charge a less rate for wheat intended for export than that intended for local consumption. There has sometimes been a wide difference between the freight rate on wheat between Kansas City and Galveston, Texas, depending upon whether the wheat was to be exported or intended for domestic use.

In certain sections and for certain products the railroad rate varies with the season, because of difference in competition. Therailroad rate between Chicago and New York on grain is higher while the navigation of the Great Lakes is suspended. As an illustration of the cheapness of transportation by water, it is stated that sometimes it is cheaper to ship wheat from Chicago to Buffalo by boat than to store it in a grain elevator for an equal period of time.

Products may sometimes be sent by baggage to greater advantage than by express, special arrangements for which are generally required.

FACILITIES FOR FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION

American railway facilities are, perhaps, unrivaled among the nations of the world, but the United States is still behind other nations in the matter of means of local transportation, in which good roads is only a part of the problem. In France, the so-calledmessagersare a common feature of local traffic. Thus in the Department of Touraine there are 246 towns each having from one to fourmessagers, who with their great two-wheel carts, each with single drafthorse, make one or two trips to Tours each week. Themessagerscarry freight both ways precisely in the same capacity as railroads do. While the railroads are fairly abundant these local agencies continue to thrive because delivery can be made directly to the consignee and delivery at the exact time and place is more certain. The enormous loads conveyed in these two-wheel carts by one horse is an element in this system to which the good roads of France now contribute. In 1799, France had constructed 25,000 miles of roadway. Since that time, over 300,000 miles of roadway have been completed and about 30,000 miles of railway have been constructed—ten miles of roadway for each mile of steam railway. The good roads of France are of comparatively recent origin, contributing materially to the improvement in well-being which has taken place during the same period.

CHAPTER XIXMARKETING

Without stopping to inquire the reasons, it may be recalled that there are two rather distinct forms of trade, wholesale and retail. The wholesale trade is conducted by three classes of persons: dealers or merchants, commission men, and brokers. The dealer is one who buys the goods outright and takes his own risk on making a favorable sale to the retailer. The commission man is one who receives the goods, sells them at such price as he may be able to obtain and remits to the seller the amount obtained less expenses and his commission. The broker is a man who effects a sale without coming in contact in any way with the materials sold. A cheese broker, for example, receives instruction from different factories to sell for them a certain quantity of cheese of a given kind and quality each week or month as the case may be. At the same time he receivesfrom grocery stores which retail cheese orders for various amounts, kinds and quality of cheeses. With this information at hand, he directs the various factories intrusting their business to him to ship the kind, quantity, and quality of cheese required by his several customers. For such service he receives a brokerage, which is less than that charged by a commission man because he is not required to handle or store the material.

Since the different farm products are purchased by different classes of retailers, and since their handling and sale require different facilities and special knowledge, there have arisen in the great centers of trade different kinds of markets, each having its particular facilities for the handling, care and sale, and each conducted by commission men or brokers with a special knowledge of the trade. Furthermore, certain cities have become, on account of their favorable position—to mention but one reason—headquarters for certain products or groups of products. Thus Petersburg, Virginia, has the principal wholesale market for peanuts.Elgin, Illinois, has been noted for its butter market. St. Louis is the leading mart for mules.

In a general way, the following five more or less distinct and important classes of markets for farm products may be recognized: Grain, Live Stock, Produce, Cotton and Tobacco.

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