As the production of wool in this country, although approximating 320,000,000 pounds a year, does not begin to meet the demands for the raw material, there is a yearly importation of from 156,000,000 to over 300,000,000 pounds. When each new census reveals the fact that there are fewer sheep of shearing age in the country than there were ten years before, the question of wool production becomes one of still greater importance. A solution may be found in a Peruvian product. A variety of cotton grows in Peru whose long, rough, crinkly fiber mixes so readily with wool that manufacturers use it in connection with wool in manufacturing "all wool" goods. It grows on a small tree that yields two or three crops a year for seven or eight years. The area, however, in which it is being successfully cultivated in Peru is so limited that the annual output is only about 16,000,000 pounds, of which the United States takes approximately 5,500,000 pounds. As the region in which it thrives is practically rainless, perhaps a way may be found to persuade the rough Peruvian to make a home for itself in the hot and arid regions of our Southwest. It would be a triumph of agriculture, certainly, to raise vegetable wool in regions not fitted for real sheep.—The Wall Street Journal.
3
The Casting of Metals
As is well known, some metals are unsuitable for casting, while others, like iron, can readily be cast into any desired shape. The property of casting well, it is said, depends upon whether the metal contracts or expands in solidifying from the liquid form. Iron, like water, expands in solidifying, and hence the solid metal may be seen floating in the liquid iron about it. The expansion causes it to fill the die into which it is poured, and so it can be cast easily. Gold and silver contract in cooling, and are, therefore, not suitable for casting.—Harper's Weekly.
CHAPTER XVII
DISTRIBUTION
Correct buying and the most efficient methods of manufacture play a large part in the successful carrying on of a business, but the most important consideration is the successful marketing or distributing of the product after it has been manufactured or bought. Very few products are so superior in quality that they sell themselves purely on merit. Competition in business to-day is so keen that, in order to find a market for his product, a merchant must create a demand for it. Thus at its very foundation, distribution is merely a process of creating a demand and then filling that demand. For instance, the retail merchant is concerned with bringing the customers to his store rather than to his competitor's across the street. The wholesale merchant is concerned with having the retailers handle his goods rather than those of another firm. The mail order merchant is concerned with getting the farmer's business before some other dealer gets it. The salesman is concerned with writing the order before a rival from another house writes it.
In the first place, the merchant must handle those things that his customers consider necessary or desirable. Overcoats cannot be sold in August, ashsifters on the equator, nor electric fans in Iceland. Different peoples, different times, and different conditions create different demands, and it is the merchant's business to study those demands and to fill them. In the second place, he must leave no stone unturned in endeavoring to make his product more desirable than that of his competitors. This may mean extensive advertising campaigns, expensive displays, outlay for costly catalogues and booklets, the expenditure of money for inducements to bring customers, or the hiring of expert salesmen. In fact, thousands of plans are carried out every year in this endeavor to increase trade.