Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 September 1917 — AN OBJECT LESSON [ARTICLE]

AN OBJECT LESSON

A trip through the country near any large marketing center will, if the traveler be an observant person, bring to his attention some facte that it will be well to heed. More especially will he do well to note them carefully if ihfe is a I farmer. One thing that will claim his attention is that in the planting of crops by truck farmers he will ob- , serve almost a perfect unanimity in variety throughout a given community. Cabbages and tomatoes, onions and radishes, turnips and green corn, he will find the same variety being grown by all.. If this same man will happen into this same community at the time these crops are being marketed he will see the results of this system. He will see the result of standardization. He will see prodI acts from any number of truck •farms assembled in one big shipment. all consigned 'to the same market, and all of uniform grade and value. Each man knows exactly what his produce is worth, Because he knows that it measures up to a given standard. Had these truckers “mixed’’ their products—that is, had every man planted the variety oT any [given crop that most appealed to Mm—this facility in marketing could not have been attained. Here is food for thought for the regular farmer other than the tracker. The great markets of the world have nicely adjusted standards in all commodities they handle. A shipment of corn, for instance, need not be of any particular variety, but it must be all of one variety if the shipper would get the best price. Now let us carry the lesson a step further. All shippers know that it is easier to get the top. price on a shipment of a number of cars of any commodity than on a few hundred bushels. Hence it stands to reason that the more of a given grade of any commodity a community can turn out the more readily it is marketed and the bet- : ter price it brings. Farmers would do well to not only establish farm standards, but neighborhood standards as well. Organize your productive plans with a view to systematic and pro- ; Stable marketing. Get together land decide on the most profitable crops the community is adapted to, and then as to the variety of each. When such an agreement has been reached, much of the difficulty in ; marketing will have been over- ! come.