COMPETITIVE MARKETING POINTS The following list gives the names of the different local points at which the farm products of 496 farmers of this community (see maps in Introduction), were marketed during the year 1912, the value, and also the number of farmers who furnished the same. No detailed account can be given of the various commodities which make up the total for the points outside of Braham for the reason that the records of the dealers at those points were not accessible. It can be stated, however, that the products marketed at Brunswick, Springvale, Greeley, and Rush Point, none of which are situated on the railroad, consist entirely of dairy products, there being a local creamery at each one of these points. as well as a general merchandise store which of course takes some eggs in trade. No figures are shown in this table concerning the value of the products collected at other small country stores, which are merely collecting stations to which the farmers may bring their cream during the day, and from which it is hauled to the nearest creamery located at one of the above mentioned marketing points. The amount of cream and milk gathered at the local centralizing station at Danewood is credited to Braham because it is shipped from that point. The country points named in the above table market their butter at other stations than Braham. Except when there is a substantial difference in prices, the shipping point to which a farmer hauls his products depends largely on the condition of the roads. Nothing definite can be said, however, on this point because road conditions vary at different times of the year. What may be the best road in the winter months is oftentimes the poorest during the summer months. Most of the potatoes are marketed either in the fall of the year when roads are usually pretty good, or else during the winter months when the condition of the road bed is of but little importance. It can hardly be said that any market has a decided advantage over another in this regard, during all seasons of the year. The average distance for those who haul all of their products to Braham is but 3.3 miles, whereas the average distance to market for those who market elsewhere than Braham is four miles. The average size of load hauled when marketing potatoes, is 1.53 tons. Most of the farmer's product is marketed in a very condensed form (such as milk or cream) and the condition of the roads is therefore considered of but small importance by the average farmer, who hauls his cream to town every other day, or coöperates with one or two neighbors, and thus reduces the cost of transportation to a very negligible item. Throughout this chapter, attention has been called to various. coöperative endeavors on the part of the farmers. It is interesting to note that, in spite of the many adverse criticisms of farmers' coöperative enterprises, the majority of farmers are of the opinion that much can be gained through coöperative effort. Of the total number of 496 farmers interviewed on this topic, exactly seventy-four per cent of them expressed full faith and confidence. in the farmers' coöperative movement. stating that they would A view of the Greeley creamery, school house, and general merchandise store. be willing to support further coöperative movements with money and moral support. They further stated that those farmers who seemed to express doubt concerning the efficacy of farmers' coöperation, would get in line on almost any movement as soon as it began to show results. Farmers marketing potatoes at Braham. By providing storage on the farm, heavy hauling can be done in winter when roads are good and there is but little to do on the farm. CHAPTER III HOW THE COMMUNITY BUYS GOODS EARLY STORE BUSINESS As we have seen in the foregoing chapters, the early settlers had little or no money, and the few things they had to sell at the end of the season's work could be exchanged for but a few things, the bare necessities of life. It has been shown how the few local retailers at Rush City helped to keep the early settlers living by letting them have, on credit, the little flour or clothing they needed. Several old settlers still gratefully remember certain merchants, who not only sold them necessary goods on credit, but also "helped them out of the hole" during the first years when the products of the year's work did not yield enough to pay taxes. One old man's testimony was not so favorable to these "dealers," however, for he declared that "they skinned us going and coming." When wood was brought to town there was no cash market for it. The only thing for the farmer to do was to sell it to the storekeeper for "store pay." Naturally enough the storekeeper "played safe," and as a result the farmer perhaps got much less for his wood than would have been the case, could he have sold more directly to a consuming market. In the prices charged for the goods given in exchange, naturally enough too, the storekeeper got a big margin for interest charges on credit. granted as well as the general margin for trade profit. This sort of wholesale farm produce business, combined with the credit broker and retail business, appears to have been "very lucrative to those who were able to make it go." Some never got fairly started before they failed, but many of them became wealthy at the business. The men who worked for the lumbering companies in the winter were paid in the somewhat depreciated United States notes or "Shin Plasters," as they were euphoniously denominated by the "lumber jacks." The business of the farming community |