The weakness of the law is the difficulty of its enforcement because of the number of violations, and the difficulty of drawing distinct lines in regard to which eggs are to be considered unlawful.
Education of the farmer as to the situation is, of course, the surest means of preventing the loss, but the education of ten millions of farmers is easier to suggest than to execute. The most effective plan of education would be the introduction of a method of buying eggs similar to the one in vogue in Denmark, in which every producer is paid strictly in accordance with the quality of his eggs.
With our complicated system involving five to six dealers between the producer and the consumer, such a system is well nigh impossible. With the introduction of co-operative buying or the community system of production, paying for quality becomes entirely possible.
For enterprising farming communities, the following plans offer a cure for the evil of general store buying that take good and bad alike and causes the worthy farmer to suffer for the carelessness and dishonesty of his neighbor.
First: The encouragement of the cash buying of produce, and, if possible, the candling of all eggs with proper deduction for loss.
Second: The buying of eggs by co-operative creameries. The greatest difficulty in this has been the opposition of the merchants, who through numerous ways available in a small town, may retaliate and injure the creamery patronage to an extent greater than the newly installed egg business will repay.
Third: The agreement of the merchants to turn all egg buying over to a single produce buyer. This has been successfully done in a few instances, but there are not many towns in which those interested will stick to such an agreement. The worst fault with this plan is that the moment the egg buyer is given a monopoly he is tempted to lower the farmer's prices for the purpose of increasing his own profits.
Fourth: A modification of the above scheme is the case in which the produce buyer is on a salary and in the employment of the merchants. This scheme has been successfully carried into effect in some Nebraska towns. It may be the ultimate solution of the egg buying in the West. It eliminates the temptation of the buyer to use his privilege of monopoly to fatten his own pocket-book. The weakness of the plan is that a salaried man's efficiency in the close bargaining necessary to sell the goods is inferior to that of the man trading for himself. Other difficulties are: Getting a group of merchants who will live up to such an agreement; the farmers object to driving to two places; the competition of other towns; the merchants' realization that, the farmer with cash in his pocket or a check good at all stores, is not as certain a trader as one standing, egg basket on arm, before the counter; and last, and most convincing, the merchant's further realization that any fine Saturday morning, with eggs selling at fifteen cents at the produce house, he may stick out a card "Sixteen Cents Paid for Eggs" and make more money in one day than his competitors did all week.
Fifth: Co-operative egg buying by the farmers themselves. This has been discussed in a previous chapter. It is all right in localities where the business is big enough to warrant it and the farmers are intelligent and enthusiastic to back it up and stick to it.
The High Grade Egg Business.