ers on good terms with the local cattle buyer. Moreover, the average farmer is not as good a judge of market classes and grades of live stock as he is of grain. Oftentimes a local buyer will pick up a mixed lot of steers at a safe margin on "mediums," when some of the animals may sell as "choice" or "prime" in the market. That is where most of his profits are made. In the hog business the differences in grades are usually not so great, and hogs are usually handled, it is said, at less profit.

stations.

The farmers of this township who raise Holstein cattle have an exceptional advantage in the marketing world over their neighbors who raise a different breed of cattle. The country around N. has won a national fame among dairymen as "the Home of the Pure-Bred Holstein Cows." As a result of this fame the owner of Holstein cattle, and even those who have only the Holstein crosses, "grades," and "scrubs," are getting high prices from buyers who come from every part of the United States. This last

summer the government of Japan had agents in this community buying up all the cattle they could get, at prices that seemed fabulous to some of the old-time breeders of native stock. There are farmers of good highclass pure-bred stock, of Shorthorn, Jersey, or Guernsey breeds, but these command no such prices as the "Holstein people" get, simply because their community is not advertised for these breeds.

Just as we have seen that the advent of the railroad in 1865 made a big change in the method of marketing farm products, so it changed the old method of buying for the farmers. Whereas, there used to be numerous cross-road post-offices and general merchandise stores, the beginning of railway traffic soon gave a decided advantage to those merchants whose stores were located at the railway station. Gradually the cross-road stores went out of business. The advent of the rural free mail delivery service finally did away with practically all of them. The lone country store is now a thing of the past in this part of the country.

The city of N. on the northwest corner of the township has already been referred to as the largest of the five towns to which the farmers of this township have easy access. As we have seen, from the standpoint of marketing farm products N. does not seem to have the advantage of the smaller towns except perhaps in the matter of milk shipping. Indeed, it appears that the little town of D. with only one hundred and eighty-four inhabitants is getting some of the grain and live stock from the territory that would seem to belong to N. The hilly roads toward N. are the main cause for this. On the other hand, N. has a big advantage due largely to its size. People come to this town from as far as fifteen miles distant in order to get a choice from a variety of things. Practically all the millinery, ladies' coats and furs, as well as men's ready-made garments are bought at N. because the farmers' daughters are beginning to follow styles more from year to year. At church socials and fairs it is quite impossible to tell a town girl from her modish country cousin.

Whereas it is a distinct advantage for the merchants of N. to have within its city limits two colleges which together enroll about one thousand students, there seems to have grown up among many of the farmers a certain antagonism as a result of the development of this distinctly "city-toned social life" along with the growth of these educational institutions. There used to be a time "when John Tompkins, the grocer, used to drive out to Ed. Schimmerhorn's on Sunday afternoons and then go over to a neighbor's pasture to play a game of baseball, while the women-folks remained at home to visit, and get a good supper ready for the men and boys." Old settlers still hark back with much pleasure to "those days when town and country people were so much alike." Now the "merchants are getting so high-toned that we never get to see their families any more,

unless we chance to get just a glimpse of them and hear them gaily laugh as they speed along in their automobiles after having run over one of our clucks with her flock of little chickens."

With the merchants of the smaller towns there seems to be a more intimate understanding. The farmers feel perfectly at ease with the storekeepers, many of whom own farms themselves. The banker as well as the grocer and hardware man stand around with coats off, sleeves rolled up, "talking over" topics of common interest, "just like farmers themselves." Although they do not have the choice of goods here that they have at N., they prefer to get their machinery, hardware of all kinds, groceries, shoes, and working clothes at these smaller places, mostly because they feel that the merchants at these smaller places are not "getting rich off from us." There is much trade turned to D. by the big hills and the general slope of the country in that direction, which tends to draw the grain business that way; but at other times it is something besides roads that keeps some of the farmers patronizing these smaller towns. "Who is it," they ask, "that pays for all those electric-lighted show windows, those high-toned clerks, and all that style that those city merchants are putting on?"

Peddlers still do a very considerable amount of business in many homes. There are four distinct medicine companies that send a man around once or twice a year. All of these "wagons" are selling patent medicines and spices and perfumes, salves, and toilet articles and "are making money on it." Besides these perennial medicine men there is another peddler doing business among the people of this community who deserves special attention. He has "a regular general merchandise store on wheels." His wagon is loaded down with ready-made, end-of-season, job-lot sales which he sells to the men and women of the country at prices "much cheaper than our town merchants." This particular peddler has worked up a regular patronage in the country. He moves about leisurely from one place to another, taking meals with the farmers, and staying overnight. In this way he not only cuts down his general or supplementary costs by giving cheap jewelry and little notions to the children as presents for the "keep of his team and himself," but at the same time he is getting intimately acquainted with the needs and wants of the families with which he comes into such close contact. In chatting with the various members of the family in the evening he not only gains their confidence and good will, but learns exactly what they want, and he tells them that he will look it up for them when he gets to the cities the next time. In that way he really is taking orders for his next coming although they are not conscious of having given him an order; the matter is regarded merely as a personal favor, and not as a business contract. Thus it is that this peddler can sell so much cheaper than the local merchants, and that in many homes he supplies almost everything except groceries and farm machinery. The gayly