Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1874 — Farmers’ Prices. [ARTICLE]

Farmers’ Prices.

There is no reason why the farmer should not get nearer the price paid by the consumer than he has been getting—there is no reason why he should allow all the profits of his business to go to agents, anA he get really less than his crops cost. Who wonders farmers are poor, that their stock is indifferent, their houses weather-worn, their fields impoverished—when they are continually selling their products at a price actually below the Cost of production? Why should JEQt the farmer get an actual profit of fifty oents a bushel on his beans, ten cents a pound on his poultry, five centsA dozen on his eggs, instead of selling them below cost? If farmers sell potatoes for forty cents a bushel which' oost fifty cents to raise, and for which they should get Sixty-—who wonders that they complain of hard limes?, Now, is not a reform in this matter possible and practicable? Why may not the farmers of,a neighborhood reckon up what amount of what kinds of products they will have for sale this fall, ascertain its price in she leading markets and send this direct

to market, through a trusty agent of their own selection? Is anything to hinder? We know of large and independent farmers who so far as they and their products are concerned regulate the prices them selves. They have a large crop of apples or a good clip of wool to dispose of, and sell directly to consumers or manufacturers, getting, always, the top price. Buyers know this and keep away from such men—but they have become independent by just such a course as this, and, having become so, they are able to keep so. They dictate terms; they say what they will take; they never ask “what will you give?” sfow what one man can do'who has a large surplus of one product to dispose of a dozen farmers, acting through one of their number, may do, "in the selling of their crops. And we believe it possible for some plan to be put into execution this fall that shall inaugurate anew and better method of marketing the products of the farm Let our readers canvass this matter, and send us their views upon it, that through our columns the opinion of others may be obtained and a better market system adopted.— Maine Farmer.