[THERE is here reprinted the greater part of a paper on "Methods and Costs of Marketing," by Frank Andrews, in the Yearbook of Department of Agriculture (U. S.) for 1909, pp. 161-172.]

Finding a market; selling in transit. One of the primitive ways of finding a market is for the farmer to go with his wares from house to house, or from store to store, making inquiry until a purchaser is found. An application of this simple plan is made on a large scale in the marketing of live stock. A car of cattle consigned from a Kansas shipping point to Chicago may be unloaded and placed on sale at Omaha or Kansas City. In case no sale is made at one of these stopping places the stock is forwarded to Chicago. This practice is common on most of the important live-stock routes of the United States.

Grain also frequently changes hands at an intermediate market through which it passes, and the cars thus sold may be forwarded to destinations selected by the new owners. Regular quotations of prices are made at Chicago and other cities for grain in cars billed through to eastern markets from shipping points in the Middle West. Wheat raised in the Canadian northwest and shipped to the seaboard through North Dakota and Minnesota, for reentry into Canada by way of the Great Lakes, often changes hands at Duluth.

Diversion of shipments. Another method of searching for a market is that of diverting a consignment to a destination other than the one first named in the shipping papers. An illustration of this is the practice common in the grain exporting business of the Pacific Coast. It is usual for a cargo of wheat or barley sent from this coast to Europe to be consigned "for orders" to some port in the British Isles, as Queenstown, Falmouth, or Plymouth. After the vessel starts, the exporter tries to have a purchaser ready to bargain for the cargo when it reaches the port of call. The voyage around Cape Horn takes three or four months and this time is allowed the exporter for finding a suitable market. On its arrival at the port of call, the vessel receives orders as to the port at which the grain is to be discharged.

A similar plan is followed in shipping fruit by rail from California to the East. Two of the diversion points on these routes are Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Minnesota Transfer, a freight yard between St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Other important instances of this practice of diverting a consignment en route are afforded in the movement of fruits and vegetables from Southern States. A commission firm, whose head office is in Pittsburg, distributes its marketings in this way. On receipt of a telegram, say, from a Georgia shipper, announcing that he has a car ready to move, the head office of this firm decides at once the general direction for the car to go. If the West promises the best markets for the next several days, the shipper may be notified to consign to Cincinnati, or if the car is to go to an Eastern city, the consignment may be made to Potomac Yard, a freight transfer point on the Potomac River opposite Washington, D. C. At each of these diversion points a representative of the commission firm opens the cars, inspects the contents, and reports the results by telegraph or telephone to the Pittsburg office, which is kept informed of market conditions in different cities. The agent at the diversion point will then receive orders as to the final destination of the car. Among the diversion points used for shipments of produce from the Southwest are Kansas City, St. Louis, and Chicago.

Public city markets. Public market places are established in a number of cities and towns and in these places consumers may buy such articles as fruit, vegetables, dairy products, poultry, and eggs direct from farmers as well as from dealers.

In recent years there has been a tendency in some markets, as at Baltimore, Norfolk, and "Washington, for practically all of the stalls to be used by dealers, while the producers occupy places along the neighboring sidewalks.

Market places are owned sometimes by city governments and sometimes by private corporations. In Washington, D. C, the largest markets are under private ownership, while in Baltimore the largest markets belong to the city. In York, Pa., there is one market owned by the city and five by private parties.

At some markets the only accommodations are those afforded by an open square, as one of the markets at Omaha, Neb., and one at Richmond, Ind.; other places have open sheds, and still others are furnished with market houses. Some of the most noted markets of the United States are held under open sheds; the French Market in New Orleans and Lexington Market in Baltimore are both of this type. Among the numerous cities which have market houses are Pittsburg, Pa., Mobile, Ala., Buffalo, N. Y., Erie, Pa., Salem, Mass., Washington, D. C, Richmond, Va., Norfolk, Va., and Baltimore, Md.

The charges for space along the curb at some markets range from 10 cents to 75 cents per day for each wagon, and by the year from $10 to $50 or more. At Atchison, Kan., and also at San Antonio, Tex., a charge of 10 cents a day is made for each wagon occupying a place in the market, while at Buffalo, N. Y., the rate for a one-horse vehicle is 15 cents and for a two-horse wagon 25 cents per day, and at Norfolk, Va., these rates are respectively 10 and 15 cents. At Richmond, Ind., and Omaha, Neb., spaces in the market are sold at auction to the highest bidder.

Producers sell in large quantities to dealers and deliver to commission men at public market places similar to the ones devoted to retail trade, and in many of the retail markets wholesale dealing is also done. The public market places of Omaha, New York, and Denver are used almost exclusively for wholesale trade, and so are wharf markets in Pittsburg, Baltimore, and Washington.

Warehouses. Another institution which aids the producer to dispose of his crop is the public warehouse. Illustrations of this are afforded in marketing tobacco in Virginia and North Carolina, wool from the northern Rocky Mountain States, and to some extent rice in Louisiana and Texas. The growers, or their representatives, with their produce, meet the buyers at these warehouses. The method of operation in Virginia may be illustrated by the conditions at Richmond. The warehouses here are listed and market begins in the first one on the list for a certain day. After sales have been made in the first buyers go to the second, and so on throughout the list. Planters arrange their tobacco in piles along the floor of the warehouse, each pile being identified by a label or card attached to it. As the piles are auctioned off each buyer has some mark of identification attached to the pile purchased, and a record is made by the warehouse authorities. On leaving the warehouse the planter obtains his money from the warehouse manager, who in turn makes up a bill against each buyer for the total amount of tobacco he has bought that day. After the last warehouse sale has been made the market is continued at the Tobacco Exchange, where dealing is based upon samples displayed there. The importance of this system may be judged by the quantity of tobacco sold in these warehouses by farmers. The total sales by farmers at twenty-one Virginia markets having tobacco warehouses amounted during the nine months ending June 30, 1909, practically the entire season, to 116,000,000 pounds; and in the fiscal year ending July 31, 1909, the sales by planters in the warehouses of forty-five North Carolina markets amounted to 142,000,-000 pounds.