_Full statistics._--The same end is served still more fully by frequent
publication of price-lists, and a daily record of the transactions in any
market gives information which every dealer can use to advantage. Public
statistics, carefully and honestly prepared, serve both buyers and sellers
of any article of commerce. The farmer needs as much as anybody the
fullest information as to what his fellow farmers have to sell, whether
they are immediate neighbors or in distant parts of the world. The price
of wheat on any farm ought, if perfect understanding is reached, to
conform to the general law of supply and demand throughout the world, and
the yield of wheat in Russia, India and South America affects the value of
every bushel raised in our country.

Every advance in the perfection of statistics and the rapidity of
collection makes more certain the bargain of every producer and consumer.
People have sometimes opposed the gathering of statistics for fear that
large dealers and speculators may take unfair advantage from such
information. But a careful consideration will show that managing of the
market depends chiefly upon want of information on one side of the
bargain. If farmers were as thoroughly informed as to the crops of the
world as carefully collected statistics might make them, no false rumors
could mislead them in selling their produce. The evident tendency toward
more stable markets, as shown by the records of the last twenty years, is
accounted for partially, at least, by the more perfect information
available. If farmers themselves would take interest in furnishing
accurate estimates of the extent and condition of every product held for
sale, they would in the long run reap the highest advantages of clearly
understanding the supply and demand in the markets of the world. This
would do more to destroy the demoralizing force of mere speculation than
any possible legal enactment.

_Ready transportation._--An equally important part of the machinery of
exchange is easy transportation. Every improvement in the transportation
of persons or products not only lessens the cost of the article when
delivered, but increases the actual stability of price and range of the
market.

The pioneer farmers of northern Ohio found absolutely no market for their
wheat until the opening of the Erie canal. Farmers upon western prairies
found corn their cheapest fuel until railway transportation brought coal
mines and corn fields i