From Days Gone By January 28, 1922

January 28, 1922.

    The Wrightsville Headlight printed a piece from the Nashville Tennessean about the plight of farmers, called "De Ducks".
    Under an Iowa dateline the newspapers of the middle west recently carried a story of a farmer who had sold his corn, attempting to explain to a banker why he needed a loan. The following dialogue ensued:
    "But," the banker said, "I don't understand why you should want to borrow money when you have just shipped your corn. What did you do with the money?"
    "De ducks got it," replied the farmer. "What do you mean by 'de ducks?" Replied the banker.
    "Well," the farmer explained, "i shipped the corn to market and sold it for 52 cents a bushel. They de duck freight, that left 31 cents; de duck 1 cent commission, that left 30 cents; de duck elevator charges, that left 27 cents; de duck huskings that left 15 cents; de duck hauling, that left 5 cents; de duck the hired man's wages from that and you are a better farmer than I am if you can find anything left."
    The "de ducks" are the plague of the farmer's existance. Under the prevailing marketing system he pays everytime he turns around, and unless times are remarkably good, it takes keen figuring to discover the profit.
    All of the "de ducks" cannot be eliminated, but some of them can, and the average remainder can be reduced. Cooperative marketing will deliver the knock-out to the present "de duck" system. The farmer is certainly entitled to fair percentage of return on his investment and labor, and the only way in which we can be assured of it is by organization so that he can have a voice in the sales price of what he raises.
    Agriculture needs to apply the same scientific methods of buying, warehousing, and merchandising as it does to producing. When that is done the industry will be placed upon a business basis.