with the orderly production and sales distribution is possible. While colle-
policies of industry, the weak position ges and other research institutions
of the farmer is realized. have shewed the farmer how to make
The position of the farmer to-day is two blades of grass grow where but
not due to any lack of ability on his one grew before, they have not aided
part nor to any superiority on the him in disposing of the second blade.
part of those engaged in other lines The mere increase of quantity and
of activity. Manufacturers, bankers quality have not meant increased
and industrialists in general have wealth and contentment for farmers
accumulated capital because of neces- because such do not depend on in-
sity ; they have combined many small crease of quality and quantity but
enterprises into large ones with enor- rather on the prices received for the
mous capital and natural resources output. Is it not true that the years
purely because it has been economical- of maximum production see the low-
ly advantageous to do so. Farmers est prices paid for the product? Tt
as a group have not required large goes without saying that farmers as a
amounts of capital and to-day stand whole have been keenly dissatisfied
for the most part as individualists. with their financial returns. On the
The individual today has very little other hand the consuming public
power beyond that resulting from the protests that it pays entirely too
capital he controls; success in industry much for most food products,
has resulted from a combination of It is generally admitted that the
the capital and resources of many in- difference paid by the ultimate con-
dividuals and groups of individuals. sumer for a given article and the
Until farmers can realize that their prices received by the producer for
helpless position is due to indepen- the same article has heen in most
dent action, agriculture will con- cases entirely too great. This spread
tinue to be the least influential por- between producer and consumer is
tion of the economic life of the world. taken up in the marketing processes
and the attitude taken by the farmer
OUTLINE OF MARKETING. is that he is entitled to a larger pro-
When goods or agricultural pro- portion than he now gets, of the
ducts are produced in quantites great- money paid by the consumer for the
er than the requirements of the in- farmers’ products.
dividual producer it becomes necessary MIDDLEMEN A NECESSITY,
to dispose of the surplus. Agriculture
to-day exists primarily for the pur- Middlemen are absolutely neces-
pose of production for sale to con- sary in the present scheme of eco-
sumers and it is this movement or nomic life. They perform the task
distribution of articles from the of distributing products from the pro-
primary producer to the ultimate con- ducer to the consumer and can in no
sumer that is termed “marketing.” way he replaced. Roughly, the func-
In years past, agricultural investiga- tions of middlemen can be stated to
tion and research on the part of be assembling of small quantities of
agricultural colleges and institutions produce, storage or warehousing pro-
lias been confined to the many cessing, financing, transporting, sell-
problems. of production. Tremendous ling and distributing. A single middle-
improvement in cultural practices of man or dealer does nob necessarily
all kinds and in every branch of carry out all of these functions hyt
agriculture has been the result and all must be done by someone. These
this has been but right as production steps in distribution are essential for
must of necessity come before any the movement of foodstuffs to the
