In the grain business of the Pacific Northwest and in the cotton trade of the South it is not uncommon for the same firm that buys from the farmer to sell to the European miller. A grain exporter of Portland, Tacoma, or Seattle sometimes owns as many as 200 warehouses at different country railroad stations, and his agents at these stations buy direct from the farmers and consign to the seaport; while in Europe agents or correspondents of the same firm seek out buyers for the grain. But east of the Rocky Mountains the exporter of wheat, while he may sell through his representatives to foreign mills or dealers, in many instances does not buy either from the producer or the country grain dealer. His supply is often furnished by commission men or large dealers.

In addition to the five classes of middlemen just discussed, others of importance in the distribution of farm products are the jobber, who buys and sells in wholesale lots, and the retail dealer, the last of the series of middlemen who handle the commodity on its way from the producer to the consumer.

Direct sales without aid of middlemen. Common instances of the producer selling direct and delivering to the door of the consumer occur in the marketing of milk, butter, eggs, poultry, fruits, vegetables, hay, and other farm products.

Milk producers in the neighborhood of Erie, Pa., through their organization, deliver milk direct to consumers. Numerous poultry raisers sell exhibition stock direct to other poultry raisers. Eggs for hatching are also sold in this way. Registered cattle are often sold at auctions, held periodically by the owners. Retail sales of fruit, vegetables, poultry, eggs, and dairy products direct by producer to consumer are made also in public market places.

In a sense, a mill or a factory may be regarded as a consumer. An old instance of the producer selling in wholesale lots direct to the consumer is that of the farmer taking his grain to a near-by mill. A sale of sugar beets to a neighboring factory is another example of direct bargaining between producer and consumer; so is the sale and delivery of milk to a creamery, apples to an evaporating establishment, and fruits and vegetables to neighboring canning houses.

Selling at wholesale direct to consumer is illustrated also by a plan recently adopted by wool growers of the northern Rocky Mountain region. Large warehouses are established at Chicago and Omaha to which wool is consigned to be sold by the growers or their representatives. Manufacturers as well as dealers are among the buyers, so that part of the sales are made direct by the growers or their agents to consumers. Not only are direct sales by producer to manufacturer made in the warehouses, but on the range itself, for since the establishment of warehouses manufacturers and dealers have continued to send some of their buyers to the range.

One of the prominent woolgrowers of Wyoming reports that since the establishment of the large warehouses prices on the range have been much better. For the sake of supporting the warehouses the stockholders agree to pay into the association a certain percentage of their gross sales of wool, whether sold on the range or in the warehouses. This method of supporting a cooperative institution is adopted also by the Georgia Fruit Growers' Exchange.

Transfers through one middleman. A large number of transactions are made in which only one middleman assists in the transfer from producer to consumer. A common example is that of the town merchant who buys produce from farmers and sells it to consumers.

Among the other instances of a single middleman intervening between producer and consumer may be noted the commission man at a large market who receives consignments of live stock from farmers and sells to packers; the factor to whom the planter consigns his rice or cotton and from whom purchases are often made by millers; the warehouseman who manages the sale of a Virginia planter's tobacco; and the "line," or system, of elevators, which buys grain from farmers and sells to millers. Pennsylvania tobacco is often bought at the farm by a dealer who sells to manufacturers.

It is a common practice in a number of cities - for instance, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington - for milk to be handled by. one middleman, namely, the city retailer, who buys direct from the producer. A considerable part of the supply of New York City is delivered at country shipping points to stations or "creameries" owned by New York dealers, who sell in the city at retail.

An organization which brings the grain producer nearer the great mills is the farmers' elevator. The plan of its operation has some features similar to that of the wool warehouses of Chicago and Omaha. Farmers cooperate in building an elevator and in employing a manager.

Marketing through two middlemen. The intervention of two middlemen between producer and consumer is a common occurrence. The farmer may consign to a distant commission man or sell to a local dealer, and the next transaction of the series may be the sale to a retail merchant whose customers are consumers. A common way of marketing live stock is for the farmer to sell to a buyer who ships to a commission merchant at a large packing center, where the animals are sold frequently to packers. Fruits and vegetables are marketed often through the aid of two middlemen, the city commission dealer and the retail merchant. Two middlemen are involved also in some sales of produce made by farmers' cooperative societies; the first, unless the sales manager of a society be classed as a middleman, being the wholesale or the commission dealer, and the second the retail merchant.

The milk supply of Boston is distributed largely through two successive middlemen, the wholesale and the retail dealer; and another series of two middlemen consists of the traveling huckster in Massachusetts and elsewhere, who buys poultry from farmers and sells to retail merchants. Hop growers of the Pacific coast frequently sell direct to commission men who buy for large dealers, and these dealers in turn make part of their sales to brewers.

Transactions involving three or more middlemen. A series of three middlemen may include, first, the local buyer or shipper; second, the commission dealer or the wholesale merchant; and third, the retail merchant. Watermelons from the region of San Antonio, Tex., are reported to be distributed in considerable quantities through such a series of dealers. Traveling hucksters in Missouri buy poultry from farmers and sell occasionally to merchants or to commission firms, who in turn include among their customers some retail dealers. Apple dealers in this country purchase the fruit from growers and sell to United States agents of German importers. The third in this series of middlemen is the retail dealer in Germany.

In the sale of fruit by auction, as is common in large cities east of the Mississippi River, the auctioneer is an additional middleman. He may sell for a commission dealer to whom the consignment may have been made by a country buyer; and the purchaser at such an auction may be a jobber, who in turn sells to a retail merchant. Five middlemen are thus concerned in such a transaction.

Another instance of a long series of middlemen may be had in some exports of wheat from North Dakota to England. The grain may be bought first by a country grain dealer, consigned to a middleman at Duluth, bought there by an exporter, who in turn sells through his European agent to a foreign grain dealer. The last of the series of transactions may be the sale by the foreign merchant to the miller. Hay, in many parts of the country, is frequently bought by a local merchant who sells through a commission man to a wholesale dealer. Or again, the commission man may sell to an exporter who ships direct to an importer in Cuba, and one or more additional sales may be made before the hay reaches the last purchaser.

Onions raised in Kentucky are sometimes bought by a local merchant and shipped to Louisville; here they may be put in sacks and consigned to a New York wholesaler or a commission man, who in turn sells to a New York retailer. Eggs and poultry frequently pass through the hands of at least four middlemen.

The marketing of clover seed is an example of a transfer from one farmer to another through a number of middlemen. The first middleman may be an Indiana shipper who consigns to a commission dealer in Toledo; here the seed may be purchased by a merchant and shipped to a wholesale dealer in a distant city; the last middleman in this course of distribution may be a country storekeeper or a city dealer in agricultural supplies.

Terms of sales. Reference is made in other parts of this article to conditions affecting payments for produce. Cash payments, as has been said, are most general, but when a farmer is to make a delivery to a distant purchaser, it is often the practice for the payment to be made by means of a draft attached to a bill of lading. By selling for a definite price fixed before the sale is made, the farmer knows at the time of sale the exact amount he is to receive, but he may be at a disadvantage owing to lack of competition among buyers or to his failure to keep posted concerning market conditions. On the other hand, if he ships his produce to be sold on commission, he risks being disappointed with the proceeds of the sale.

Some of the disadvantages of selling at or near the farm are being overcome by improved conditions which open to the farmer other markets in case the one at home is not satisfactory. The use of the telephone enables him to know the latest market news, and the service of a cooperative selling association makes it easier for him to take advantage of favorable prices in distant markets.

Some produce is sold in advance of the harvest; for instance, in New York, Maryland, and Michigan vegetables are grown for canning houses under contracts made sometimes as early as the preceding midwinter. The terms of these contracts vary. According to some of them the canner furnishes the seed and fertilizer and agrees to make advances of money during the season and a final settlement at the end. Contracts providing for the sale of three successive crops at a fixed price are reported to have been made in 1908 with some hop growers of Washington and Oregon.

Cooperative selling associations. The number of farmers' cooperative associations through which produce is marketed is increasing continually. Various fruits and vegetables, grain, tobacco, peanuts, rice, and other products are sold by the agents of such associations. In the State of Colorado alone there were in 1907 at least thirty-three such organizations and the products handled by them included cantaloupes, peaches, honey, potatoes, and miscellaneous fruits and vegetables. A number of California associations have united to form larger bodies through which sales are made, while the local organizations pack and load the produce.

At least two produce exchanges have been conducted successfully for a number of years by truck growers of the peninsula lying between the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The cranberry crop is marketed largely through farmers' organizations, and similar associations, too numerous to be listed here, are improving conditions of marketing in other parts of the United States. The extent to which the cooperative movement among farmers is distributed may be illustrated by the apples from Hood River, Ore., which are marketed in this way; fruits and vegetables from Yuma Valley, Ariz.; celery from Florida, cantaloupes from Tennessee, onions from central and western Texas, tobacco from Kentucky, grain from Minnesota and North Dakota, rice from Texas, peaches from Georgia, vegetables from Louisiana, and various articles from Michigan, in addition to a large number of products from California.

Two of the important results of cooperation in marketing have been the shipment of better grades of fruits and vegetables, and the command by the farmers of a greater influence in the market on account of large quantities of produce being controlled by a single authority.