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Show MARKET REPORTS AID TRADE Government Helps Farmer by Giving Out Information Regarding Supplies Sup-plies and Prices. (Prepared by the United States Department of Agriculture.) In a strict sense there can be no such thing as a "fair trade" when either party has the advantage of vastly superior information. Up to the time the bureau of markets and crop estimates of the United States Department De-partment of Agriculture was established estab-lished most transactions In the marketing mar-keting of farm products were, In this sense, unfair. This was due to the fact that the buying side almost Invariably In-variably had vastly better Information Informa-tion regarding supplies, both available and prospective, future production, prices current throughout the country, and probable movements of the products. prod-ucts. Placing the farmer on the same footing with the buyer, so far as information in-formation is concerned, so that the element of chance applies equally to both, Is the aim of the Department of Agriculture. For this. It gathers every ev-ery available scrap of Information re-. re-. lating to supplies, current quotations, and other fundamental conditions influencing in-fluencing markets, arranges the information infor-mation in readable form, and makes it readily available to everyone having use of it Before the department took up this work, the farmer was not wholly without with-out market reports. Newspapers, trade journals, telegraph companies, and many other organizations, as well as Individuals, distributed in the rural districts reports that purported to be market information. Unfortunately for the farmer, however, many of these reports originated with buyers of farm produce, or from sources controlled or dominated by such interests. Under these circumstances It was but natural that they redounded to the advantage of the buyer and almost invariably worked to the financial handicap of the farmer and producer. The department's reports are now being made use of by practically all classes of people farmers, commission merchants, boards of trade, brokers, chambers of commerce, retail dealers, and consumers. Most persons who have come In touch with the work of - - l&Z. " 4 If Government Inspecting Cattle Government's Gov-ernment's Unbiased Market Re-ports Re-ports Guide Farmers in Marketing to Best Advantage. the department realize that It neither buys nor sells any commodity and has no interest to sorve except that of accuracy. The whole purpose of its work Is to hold a nvrrnr before the markets oC the country and to hold It at such an angle tlmt nil the people peo-ple may see what is taking place at the moment. |