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Agriculture Trade and Marketing
AGRICULTURE TRADE AND
MARKETING

Nekesah T. Wafullah

www.delvepublishing.com
Agriculture Trade and Marketing
Nekesah T. Wafullah

Delve Publishing
224 Shoreacres Road
Burlington, ON L7L 2H2
Canada
www.delvepublishing.com
Email: [email protected]

e-book Edition 2023

ISBN: 978-1-77469-551-7 (e-book)

This book contains information obtained from highly regarded resources. Reprinted material
sources are indicated and copyright remains with the original owners. Copyright for images and
other graphics remains with the original owners as indicated. A Wide variety of references are
listed. Reasonable efforts have been made to publish reliable data. Authors or Editors or Publish-
ers are not responsible for the accuracy of the information in the published chapters or conse-
quences of their use. The publisher assumes no responsibility for any damage or grievance to the
persons or property arising out of the use of any materials, instructions, methods or thoughts in
the book. The authors or editors and the publisher have attempted to trace the copyright holders
of all material reproduced in this publication and apologize to copyright holders if permission has
not been obtained. If any copyright holder has not been acknowledged, please write to us so we
may rectify.

Notice: Registered trademark of products or corporate names are used only for explanation and
identification without intent of infringement.

© 2023 Delve Publishing

ISBN: 978-1-77469-519-7 (Hardcover)

Delve Publishing publishes wide variety of books and eBooks. For more information about Delve
Publishing and its products, visit our website at www.delvepublishing.com.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nekesah T. Wafullah is a skilled agriculture expert with extensive knowledge in

agricultural energy value addition products, agricultural business management services,
project management, various forms of fertilizer, their production, sales, marketing
aspects and application regimes; cross border fertilizer trade policies; youth and women
empowerment and volunteerism. She is adept at project planning and management as
well as creating simple solutions to complex problems. She has experience within
agricultural markets in Kenya, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Rwanda, Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC)- Bukavu and Lubumbashi and Uganda. She mentors high
school and college students and advocates for better performance in Agricultural
science. During her free time, she loves editing books, watching movies, cooking,
baking, networking, reading, and dancing. Nekesah holds an M Sc. in Agricultural and
Applied Economics degree from the University of Nairobi with a major in International
Trade and Policy.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Figures.................................................................................................xi
List of Tables.................................................................................................xiii
List of Abbreviations......................................................................................xv
Acknowledgment......................................................................................... xix
Preface..................................................................................................... ....xxi

Chapter 1 Agricultural Marketing............................................................................... 1

1.1. Overview............................................................................................. 2
1.2. Concept and Definitions of Market...................................................... 2
1.3. Components of a Market...................................................................... 3
1.4. Dimensions of a Market....................................................................... 3
1.5. Market Structure.................................................................................. 4
1.6. Agricultural Marketing Concept and Definition.................................... 7
1.7. Markets Classification........................................................................ 15

Chapter 2 Marketing Functions................................................................................. 21

2.1. Overview........................................................................................... 22
2.2. Packaging.......................................................................................... 24
2.3. Transportation.................................................................................... 25
2.4. Grading and Standardization............................................................. 36
2.5. Storage and Warehousing.................................................................. 40
2.6. Processing......................................................................................... 49
2.7. Buying and Selling............................................................................. 54
2.8. Market Information............................................................................ 63
2.9. Financing........................................................................................... 66

Chapter 3 Agricultural Value Chain and Actors........................................................ 69

3.1. Overview........................................................................................... 70
3.2. Need for Agricultural Value Chains (AVCS)........................................ 72
 3.3. Conditions for Success of AVCS......................................................... 74
3.4. Factors to Consider When Stating an AVC.......................................... 77
3.5. Farmer Groups and Value Chains....................................................... 78
3.6. Role of Media in Value Chains........................................................... 80
3.7. AVCS Upgrading................................................................................ 81
3.8. Gender and AVCS.............................................................................. 83
3.9. Characterizing of the AVCS................................................................ 83
3.10. Actors of AVC.................................................................................. 91

Chapter 4 Agricultural Product Prices.................................................................... 101

4.1. Overview......................................................................................... 102
4.2. Agricultural Prices Characteristics.................................................... 102
4.3. Role of Prices................................................................................... 104
4.4. Approaches to Agricultural Price Determination.............................. 105
4.5. Pricing Objectives........................................................................... 127
4.6. Ways Markets Arrive at Prices (Price Discovery)............................... 133
4.7. Government Intervention in Agricultural Price................................. 138

Chapter 5 Agricultural Cooperatives...................................................................... 143

5.1. Overview......................................................................................... 144
5.2. Origins and History......................................................................... 145
5.3. Types of Cooperatives...................................................................... 148
5.4. Underlying Principles of Cooperation.............................................. 153
5.5. Common Cooperative Functions...................................................... 155
5.6. Economic Concepts that May Encourage
The Formation of Cooperatives...................................................... 158
5.7. Limitations in Cooperatives.............................................................. 163
5.8. Cooperatives Equity and Debt Considerations.................................. 166
5.9. Legal Organization of Cooperatives................................................. 171
5.10. Cooperative Management Characteristics...................................... 173
5.11. Cooperative Influences on Public Policy........................................ 180
5.12. Relationships and Linkages Between Cooperatives Types............... 181
5.13. Sources for Additional Information on Cooperatives...................... 183
5.14. Agricultural Marketing Cooperatives.............................................. 185

viii
Chapter 6 Agricultural Trade.................................................................................. 191
6.1. Overview......................................................................................... 192
6.2. Type of Trade................................................................................... 193
6.3. Structure and Trends in Agricultural Trade........................................ 205
6.4. Agricultural Policy Objectives and Instruments................................ 206
6.5. Agriculture Commodity Trade Trends............................................... 215

Bibliography........................................................................................... 267

Index...................................................................................................... 271

ix
LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Agriculture product characters making agricultural marketing unique.

Figure 2: Modes of transport.
Figure 3: Generic value chain (Source: Porter, 1980
Figure 4: Sample agricultural value chain (Source: Cuddeford, 2014)
Figure 5: The agriculture and food value chain (Source: KPMG International
Cooperative, 2013)
Figure 6: Change in quantity supplied and change in supply. Source: pcsb.instructure.
com.
Figure 7: Types of trade. Source: Google Images
LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1: Thomsen Market Function Classification

Table 2.2: Kohls and Uhl Classification of Market Functions
Table 2.3: Huegy and Mitchell Classification of Market Functions
Table 2.4: Agencies for Grade Standards
Table 3.1: Types of Agricultural Value Chains
Table 3.2: Upgrading Strategy for AVCs
Table 3.3: Causes, Effects, and Potential Future Developments in the Area of Scrutiny
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ACB Agricultural Credit Bank

ACCO Agricultural Cooperative Council of Oregon
ACP African, Caribbean, and Pacific
AGMARK agricultural produce (grading and marking)
AVC agricultural value chains
BEC business and employment cooperative
BOT balance of trade
CAP common agricultural policy
CCC Commodity Credit Corporation
CCIC Central Cottage Industries Corporation
CIF cost insurance freight
COGS cost of goods sold
COR certificate of review
CSA community-supported agriculture
CWC Central Warehousing Corporation
DMI Directorate of Marketing and Inspection
EAGGF European agricultural guarantee and guidance fund
EOU export-oriented units
EPZ export processing zones
ETC export trading companies
EU European Union
FAO Food and Agricultural Organization
FAQ fair average quality
FBO farmer-based organizations
FCS farm credit system
FDI foreign direct investment
FIFO first-in-first-out
FOB free on board
FPOs farmer producer organizations
FRC organized food retail chains
G&T generating and transmission
GDP gross domestic product
GHGs greenhouse gases
GNP gross national product
GPSs global positioning systems
GVCs global value chains
HHEC Handicrafts and Handloom Export Corporation
ICA International Co-Operative Alliance
ICTs information and communications technology
IEC International Electrotechnical Commission
IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
ISA International Sugar Agreement
ISO International Organization for Standardization
IT information technology
ITC International Trade Center
LDC least developed countries
LLCs limited liability companies
LOP letter of permission
MACs marketing agencies-in-common
MCAs monetary compensatory amounts
MR marginal revenue
MRLs maximum residue limits
NABARD National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development
NCBA National Cooperative Business Association
NCFC National Council of Farmer Cooperatives
NGCs new generation cooperatives
NGOs Non-Governmental Organization
OECD Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development
OPEC Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
ORS Oregon revised statutes
PFA pest free areas
R&D research and development
RAS rural advisory services
ROI return on investment
RoO rules of origin
SBUs strategic business units
SCIC Société Coopérative D’intérêt Collectif
SHG self-help group
SMEs small and medium-sized enterprises
SPS sanitary and phytosanitary
SWCs State Warehousing Corporation
TBT technical barriers to trade
TNCs transnational corporations
UK United Kingdom
UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
UNEP United Nations Environment Program
UNFSS United Nations Forum on Sustainability Standards
UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development Organization
USA United States of America
USDA United States Department of Agriculture
USITC United States International Trade Commission
USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
VA value addition
WTO World Trade Organization

xvii
ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The book is the product of great effort and time spent. The completion of this book could
not have been possible without the participation and assistance of so many people whose
names may not all be enumerated. Their contributions are sincerely appreciated and
gratefully acknowledged. However, I would like to express our deep appreciation and
indebtedness, particularly to the following: Arcler Education, Inc. and Charles Kuria,
for their endless support, kindness, and understanding spirit during this undertaking. To
all relatives, friends, and others who, in one way or another, shared their support, either
morally, financially, or physically, I would like to thank you personally.
PREFACE

The need for agriculture to fulfill food need is ever increasing due to population. With
more population being in the urban areas, the need to move quality and sufficient food
to the urban areas is of great importance. To ensure quality of agriculture products
Value Addition (VA) is fundamental for the handling and transportation of processed
and semi-processed products. To ensure sufficient quantity, farmers need to add inputs
in order to meet the quantity demand for the rural and urban markets. Therefore,
agricultural markets review involves the products, market functions and players. All
these components help in transforming agricultural products in terms of time form
and or location. One of the best ways to understand agricultural market is through a
value chain (VC). A VC enables one to understand agricultural market in terms of how
manufacturing, purchasing, and selling works. The VC also helps in understanding the
key players and their functions in the chain such as producers, consumers of goods
and services, processors, retailers, financial providers, and so on. A common VC has
producers at on end and consumers at the other end, with variation of other players
depending on a VC.
Another factor in and agricultural value chain is the determination of prices of products.
Given the fact that the agricultural sector in most countries is declining, agricultural
product price determination is very crucial to the economy of most countries and
therefore it remains to be highly political issue. This is because of its great influence
on consumer welfare and foreign earning in most countries. The price of different
agricultural products in different countries can be influenced by several factors, such
as cost, demand, competition, value, or a combination of these. Given the behavior of
different players and politics of the day, price determination is somewhat an art. To
avoid some bad habits among players that disadvantage other groups some players may
decide to get together to form a cooperation.
Cooperatives have been known to quite productive and resilient compared to other
business models among farmers. One of the biggest advantages of cooperatives is the
ability to increase farmers bargaining power in the face of other big players such as
agribusinesses and food factories. Cooperatives also help to reduce the length of a VC
which has been shown to increase farmers margin and at the same time help in delivery
of quality products. Cooperative also provide additional function to members such as
credit facilitation, transportation, marketing and timely input acquisition. One of the
major downsides of cooperatives is limited investment/capital compared to regular
business models that give investors some operational control.
This book, therefore, looks at the different aspects of agricultural markets under
different factors to help the audience understand this kind of market. The book also
looks at the behavior of players under different conditions that determine different
approaches adopted by market at a particular moment. The books also look at the upside
and downside of different approaches in agricultural markets.

xxii
 CHAPTER 1
AGRICULTURAL MARKETING

CONTENTS
1.1. Overview............................................................................................. 2
1.2. Concept and Definitions of Market...................................................... 2
1.3. Components of a Market...................................................................... 3
1.4. Dimensions of a Market....................................................................... 3
1.5. Market Structure.................................................................................. 4
1.6. Agricultural Marketing Concept and Definition.................................... 7
1.7. Markets Classification........................................................................ 15
2 Agriculture Trade and Marketing

1.1. OVERVIEW
Agriculture provides for humanity’s basic needs by creating food. Farmers
used to produce food commodities largely for self-consumption or for
exchange (cash or kind) with others in the same village or adjacent regions
about a century ago. They were mostly self-sufficient. However, the production
environment has shifted from self-sufficiency to commercialization. High
yielding varieties, fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides, and agricultural
mechanization have all contributed to a significant increase in farm
production and, as a result, a greater marketable and marketed surplus.
Improved production is accompanied by rising urbanization, money,
changing consumer lifestyles and food habits, and stronger ties to the
international market. Consumers are no longer restricted to rural areas where
food is grown. Furthermore, rising demand for processed or semi-processed
foods necessitates value addition (VA) in agricultural raw materials. These
advancements necessitate the migration of value-added food commodities
from producers to consumers. Agricultural marketing connects farmers and
consumers through a number of actions, making it an important part of the
economy. Agricultural marketing encompasses more than just the ultimate
agricultural product. It also concentrates agricultural inputs (factors) supply
to farmers.

1.2. CONCEPT AND DEFINITIONS OF MARKET

The word “market” comes from the Latin word “marcatus,” which means
“merchant,” “trade,” or “a location where business is done.” The term
“market” has a wide range of meanings.
• A location or structure where goods are bought and sold, such as
a supermarket;
• Wheat and cotton markets are examples of prospective buyers
and sellers of a product.
• Some of the definitions of market are given as follows:
• The domain in which price-determining forces work is known as
a market;
• A market is an area where the forces of supply and demand
converge to form a single price;
• The term “market” refers not to a specific location where
commodities are purchased and sold, but to any region where
buyers and sellers interact in such a free and open manner that
 Agricultural Marketing 3

the prices of similar goods tend to equalize readily and fast;

• A market is a social entity that conducts activities and offers
facilities for buyers and sellers to exchange goods;
• In economic terms, the term market refers to a commodity or
commodities, as well as buyers and sellers who are free to trade
with one another.

1.3. COMPONENTS OF A MARKET

Certain requirements must be met for a market to exist. These requirements
should be both sufficient and essential. They might also be referred to as
market components:
• The presence of a good or commodity as a medium of exchange
(physical existence is, however, not necessary);
• The existence of buyers and sellers;
• Business relationship or intercourse between buyers and sellers;
and
• Demarcation of area such as place, region, country, or the whole
world. The existence of perfect competition or a uniform price is
not necessary.

1.4. DIMENSIONS OF A MARKET

There are various dimensions of any specified market. These dimensions
are:
• Location;
• Area or coverage;
• Time span;
• Volume of transactions;
• Nature of transactions;
• Number of commodities;
• Degree of competition;
• Nature of commodities;
• Stage of marketing;
• Extent of public intervention;
4 Agriculture Trade and Marketing

• Type of population served;

• Accrual of marketing margins.

1.5. MARKET STRUCTURE

The term structure refers to something that has been evolved for the purpose
of fulfilling a function and has organization and dimension – shape, size,
and design. The nature of the current structure limits the performance of
functions, and a function affects the structure. The size and design of the
market are referred to as market structure.
• The organizational qualities of a market that determine the nature
of competition and price, as well as the conduct of business
enterprises, are referred to as market structure.
• The elements of the market that influence trader behavior and
performance are referred to as market structure.
• The formal organization of a marketing institution’s functional
activity is known as market structure.
The ability to recognize flaws in a market’s performance requires an
insight and knowledge of the market structure.

1.5.1. Components of Market Structure

The following are the components of the market structure, which together
influence the market’s conduct and performance:
• Concentration of Market Power: Market power concentration
is a key factor in influencing the nature of competition and, as a
result, market behavior and performance. The number and size of
enterprises in the market are used to determine this. The degree
of concentration indicates how much control a single corporation
or a group of firms has over the buying and selling of produce.
A high degree of market concentration prevents products from
moving between buyers and sellers at fair and competitive
pricing, resulting in an oligopoly or oligopsony.
• Degree of Product Differentiation: The market structure is
influenced by whether or not the products are homogeneous.
If products are homogeneous, market price differences will be
limited. Firms have a tendency to charge varied prices for their
 Agricultural Marketing 5

items when their products are heterogeneous. Everyone strives to

show that his product is better than the competition’s.
• Conditions for Entry of Firms in the Market: Another aspect
of the market structure is any restrictions on new enterprises
entering the market. Because of their market dominance, a few
large corporations can refuse to allow new enterprises to enter
the market or make their entry difficult. Government limits on
business entry are also possible.
• Flow of Market Information: A well-organized market
intelligence information system allows all buyers and sellers
to freely engage in order to reach pricing agreements and close
deals.
• Degree of Integration: The behavior of an integrated market
will differ from that of a market with no integration between
enterprises or between their activities.
Firms plan their strategy in terms of how they will determine prices,
increase sales, collaborate with competitors, and use predatory tactics
against competitors or potential entrants. The conduct of enterprises in
developing strategies for their selling and buying activities is governed by
market structural factors.

1.5.2. Dynamics of Market Structure: Conduct

and Performance
Market structure influences market behavior and performance. The phrase
“market conduct” refers to a company’s patterns of behavior, particularly
in terms of price and how it adapts and adjusts to the market in which it
operates. Market behavior entails the following:
• Market sharing and price setting policies;
• Policies aimed at coercing rivals; and
• Policies towards setting the quality of products.
The phrase “market performance” refers to the economic outcomes
of the industry when each company pursues its own course of action. The
conditions for acceptable market performance must be determined by society.
The following are some of the criteria for evaluating market performance
and market structure efficiency:
• Resource efficiency, including the real cost of executing certain
operations.
6 Agriculture Trade and Marketing

• The existence of a monopoly or monopoly profits, as well as the

link between margins and average costs of executing particular
services.
• The system’s dynamic progressiveness in modifying the size and
number of enterprises in accordance to the volume of business,
adopting technical innovations, and finding and/or inventing new
types of products in order to maximize overall societal welfare.
• Whether or if the system exacerbates the problem of income
disparities between individuals, regions, or groups. Inequalities,
for example, rise in the following circumstances:
– A market middleman may earn more money than it
contributes to the national economy;
– When small farmers are offered a reduced return due to a
little surplus, they are discriminated against;
– New uses for some products, as well as considerable
variances and rigidities in production patterns between
regions, wreak havoc on inter-product price parity.
As a result, if the market structure is to meet social goals, it must
constantly adapt to changing conditions. Because of changes in physical,
economic, institutional, and technical elements, a static market structure
quickly becomes outmoded. The market structure should keep up with the
following developments for a suitable market performance:
• Production Pattern: Because of technological, economic, and
institutional considerations, significant changes in the production
pattern occur. To keep up with such changes, the market structure
needs be re-oriented.
• Demand Pattern: Because of changes in incomes, distribution
patterns among customers, and changes in their tastes and habits,
demand for diverse items, particularly in terms of form and
quality, is constantly changing. The market structure should be
re-oriented to keep up with demand fluctuations.
• Costs and Patterns of Marketing Functions: Transportation,
storage, financing, and market information transmission are all
important marketing services that influence market structure.
Government policies on purchases, sales, and subsidies have an
impact on market function performance. The market structure
should continue to alter as costs and government policies change.
 Agricultural Marketing 7

• Technological Change in Industry: Technological advancements

entail changes in market structure through adjustments in
company scale, firm size, and financial requirements.

1.6. AGRICULTURAL MARKETING CONCEPT AND

DEFINITION
Agriculture and marketing are the two words that make up the term
agricultural marketing. Agriculture is the process of growing and/or raising
crops and livestock, whereas marketing is the process of transferring things
from the point of production to the point of consumption. Many academics
have defined agricultural marketing by taking into account time, place,
shape, and passion utility. The following are some definitions of agricultural
marketing:
• Human action aimed at meeting needs and desires through the
trade process (Phillip Kotler).
• Business operations that control the flow of commodities and
services from producers to consumers (American Marketing
Association).
• Agricultural marketing is the study of all activities and
organizations involved in the transportation of farm-produced
foods, raw materials, and their derivatives, such as textiles,
from farms to ultimate consumers, as well as the impact of such
operations on farmers, middlemen, and consumers (Thomsen).
The input side of agriculture is not included in this definition.
• Agricultural marketing is a process that begins with a decision
to produce a marketable farm commodity, includes all aspects of
the market structure or system, both financial and institutional,
based on technical and economic considerations, and includes
pre- and post-harvest operations, as well as assembling, grading,
storage, transportation, and distribution (National Commission
on Agriculture, 1976).
An understanding of the complexity inherent in the agricultural
marketing system, as well as the identification of bottlenecks, is required in
order to provide effective services in the transfer of farm products and inputs
from producers to consumers. A well-designed marketing strategy reduces
costs and helps all members of society. The system’s expectations differ
8 Agriculture Trade and Marketing

from group to group, and the goals are frequently at odds. The system’s
efficiency and success are determined by how well these competing goals
are harmonized.
• Producers: Producer-farmers want the marketing system to buy
their produce quickly and give them the greatest possible part of
the consumer’s currency. They want the highest possible price
for the extra produce they have generated through the system.
Similarly, they want the system to provide them with the lowest-
cost inputs.
• Consumers: A marketing structure that can deliver food and
other commodities in the quantity and quality that they require
at the lowest possible price is appealing to agricultural product
consumers. However, the goal of marketing for consumers is at
odds with the goal of marketing for farmers and producers.
• Market Middlemen and Traders: Market intermediaries and
dealers want a marketing system that allows them to earn a
consistent and growing income from the purchase and selling
of agricultural commodities. Market middlemen can achieve
this goal by purchasing agricultural products at low prices from
farmers and selling them at high prices to consumers.
• Government: The goals and expectations of society’s three
groups—producers, consumers, and market intermediaries –
are at odds. Each of the three categories is critical to society.
To protect the interests of all parties involved in marketing, the
government must serve as a watchdog. It tries to give the producer
the greatest possible share of the consumer’s rupee; food of the
highest possible quality to consumers at the lowest possible price;
and enough margin to market middlemen so that they stay in the
business and do not consider leaving and jeopardizing the entire
marketing mechanism. As a result, the government wants the
marketing system to be such that it can deliver general welfare to
all segments of society.
Agricultural marketing, in its broadest meaning, refers to the sale of
farm products generated by farmers as well as the sale of agricultural inputs
used by farmers to produce farm products. The topic of output marketing
dates back to the dawn of civilization. With the rising marketable surplus of
crops following the technological progress, the role of output marketing has
grown more apparent in recent years. Farmers make goods for sale on the
 Agricultural Marketing 9

market. Input marketing is a relatively recent field of study. Farmers used

farm sector inputs like local seeds and farmyard manure in the past. These
inputs were readily available to them; farmers’ purchases of inputs for crop
production from the market were minimal. The new farming technology
responds to input. As a result, agricultural marketing must encompass both
product and input marketing. Agricultural marketing, in particular, covers
marketing functions, agencies, channels, efficiency, and costs, price spread
and market integration, producer surplus, government policy and research,
agricultural marketing training, and statistics.

1.6.1. Key Aspects of Agricultural Marketing

• Agricultural marketing includes all activities related to the
delivery of farm inputs to farmers and the transportation of
agricultural goods from farms to consumers.
• The agricultural marketing system is divided into two parts:
Input (factor) marketing and product marketing Farmers, village/
primary traders, wholesalers, processors, importers, exporters,
marketing cooperatives, controlled marketing committees, and
retailers are all part of the product marketing sub-system. Input
makers, distributors, linked associations, importers, exporters,
and others make diverse farm production inputs available to
farmers through the input subsystem.
• As a link between the farm and non-farm sectors, the agricultural
marketing system is studied and developed. Fertilizers, pesticides,
farm equipment, machinery, diesel, electricity, packing material,
and repair services are all needed by a vibrant and growing
agriculture sector. These items are produced and supplied by
industrial and non-farm firms. Farm output growth encourages
forward linkages by supplying food and natural fiber surpluses
that require transportation, storage, milling or processing,
packing, and retailing to consumers. Non-farm enterprises are
in charge of these tasks. Furthermore, if increases in agricultural
productivity are accompanied by increases in farm family real
incomes, the demand for non-farm consumer goods increases,
since the proportion of income spent on non-food consumables
and durables tends to rise with increases in real per capita income.
As a result, several companies discover new customers for their
products in the agricultural sector.
10 Agriculture Trade and Marketing

• The marketing system should be designed in such a way that

it benefits all members of society (producers, consumers,
middlemen, and merchants). The government serves as a
watchdog to ensure that the interests of all parties involved in
marketing are protected.
• Agricultural marketing includes marketing functions, agencies,
channels, efficiency, and costs, price spread and market
integration, producer surplus, government policy and research,
agricultural marketing training, and agricultural commodity
imports and exports.
• In a developing country like India, the overall goal of agricultural
marketing is to assist primary producers, such as farmers, in
obtaining remunerative prices for their produce, as well as to
provide the right type of goods at the right place, in the right
quantity and quality, at the right time, and at the right price to
processors and/or final consumers.

1.6.2. Importance of Agricultural Marketing

Agricultural marketing is critical not just for encouraging output and
consumption, but also for speeding up economic development. It is the most
important agricultural development multiplier. Because of the production
surpluses caused by the transition from traditional to modern agriculture,
marketing becomes the most difficult problem. The following examples
demonstrate the significance of agricultural marketing:
• Optimization of Resource Use and Output Management:
An effective agricultural marketing system optimizes resource
utilization and output management. By reducing losses caused
by inefficient processing, storage, and transportation, an efficient
marketing system can also help to enhance the marketable surplus.
A well-designed marketing system can effectively disperse
the available stock of modern inputs, allowing the agricultural
industry to grow at a quicker rate.
• Increase in Farm Income: By lowering the number of middlemen
or limiting the cost of marketing services and malpractices
in the selling of farm products, an efficient marketing system
assures better levels of income for farmers. An effective system
ensures farmers get higher prices for their farm products and
 Agricultural Marketing 11

encourages them to invest their surpluses in modern inputs to

boost productivity and production. This leads in an increase in the
farmers’ marketed surplus and income. There is no motivation for
a producer to create more if he does not have an easily accessible
market outlet where he may sell his surplus produce.
• Widening of Markets: An effective and well-knit marketing
system expands the market for products by transporting them to
far-flung locations both within and outside the country, i.e., areas
far from the point of manufacture. The expansion of the market
helps to maintain a steady increase in demand, ensuring a larger
income for the producer.
• Growth of Agri-based Industries: An enhanced and effective
agricultural marketing system aids the expansion of agriculture-
based enterprises and encourages the economy’s overall
development. Agriculture provides raw resources to many sectors,
including cotton, sugar, edible oils, food processing, and jute.
• Price Signals: Farmers can plan their production in accordance
with the needs of the economy with the support of an efficient
marketing strategy. This work is accomplished through the
transmission of pricing signals.
• Adoption and Spread of New Technology: Farmers can use
the marketing system to assist them accept new scientific and
technological information. New technology necessitates greater
investment, and farmers will only do so if they are guaranteed
market clearance at a reasonable price.
• Employment Creation: Millions of people are employed by
the marketing system in diverse tasks such as packing, shipping,
storage, and processing. The marketing system employs people
such as commission agents, brokers, traders, retailers, weighmen,
hamauls, packagers, and regulating personnel. Apart from that,
several others work as suppliers of goods and services to the
marketing system.
• Addition to National Income: Marketing operations increase the
nation’s gross national product (GNP) and net national product
by adding value to the product.
• Better Living: The marketing system is critical to the success of
development programs intended to benefit the entire population.
Any economic development plan aimed at reducing agricultural
Other documents randomly have
different content
there. The worst of it was that the Germans would get behind them
to shoot at us. Ah, that all those Frenchmen, dead for their country,
were made to protect the enemy! I couldn't look at that. So here's
what I did. I said to my men, 'I'm going for them, but if I stay there
I don't want my body to be made a rampart. Tie a rope around my
body and if you see I'm done for, pull me back by it.' At first things
went all right. I got back three of our comrades' corpses. But the
Germans began to see something was up. To mix them up I ordered
a feint on the right—another on the left. I kept on.
"I was all right. Never would those people suspect that I would risk
my life to save dead bodies. So I had the joy of getting them all
back—there were sixty-seven. And can you believe it, madame,
there were two men still living. They are in a good way to getting
well, and they can indeed say they came back from pretty far off. We
buried the others. They are now sleeping peacefully. But I couldn't
resist letting those in the opposite trench know. Not a bad trick, was
it, madame?"
VI—"THEY WILL PAY FOR THIS MISERY"
What have I seen.... The other morning among the men who came
to the vestiaire (wardrobe), where I am occupied part of the time,
and who are generally very gay and good-humoured, there was a
young soldier with a sober, set, disagreeable face. I shook him up
with, "Why, what's the matter that a French soldier makes such a
face? Won't you look me in the face and make me a nice smile?" But
he didn't change expression. I took him to one side. "What's the
matter with you, my child? First of all, where are you from?"
"I am from the North, madame."
"Oh, then I understand why you are sad. You do not know where
your dear ones are."
He looked at me with a fierce, wild expression and suddenly replied:
"I do know, madame. My elder brother was killed beside me, struck
by the same shell that wounded me. That is war. They have burned
my home, killed my mother and my father. My sister, sixteen years
old, has been violated and abused; my little sister, of nine years, has
disappeared." A black flame burned in the sombre look of the boy
and made it unbearable. I received that look straight in my eyes.
"Tell me, madame, we will get to their country, won't we, won't we?"
"Why, certainly, my boy—nothing surer."
"Oh, madame, they will pay for all this misery. But do not fear, their
women and children will not be touched."
"Their women and children will not be touched." That is what this
martyr of barbarism and of the cruelty of the enemy found in his
heart to say—this sombre, uncultivated child of a northern village. I
shook his rough hand—I squeezed it—I kissed the poor cheeks of
this orphan with maternal kisses, and I said: "I thank thee."
VII—"THE CHILDREN WHO ARE MUTILATED"
But they—what are they doing with our little children? Here's a letter
from a lady friend—a great musician. "My son-in-law, Lieutenant
—— has been defending Verdun since August. He's all right. But
when will these barbarians be entirely driven away? Lately my son-
in-law had a German soldier who was very badly wounded picked
up. When stripping him to give him aid they found a child's hand in
his pocket. He was immediately shot."
Don't think it's a single case. The children who are mutilated,
assassinated, burned, are counted by hundreds. At Blamont, in the
presence of the Baroness de V——, the Germans killed a child in its
mother's arms. "Why did you do that?" asked the Baroness. "We are
obliged to, otherwise we are shot," replied the men.
Witnesses who have seen like things are too numerous to be
counted. Everybody in France remembers the sad question of the
little girl who asked her mother, "Will Santa Claus bring me back my
hands for Christmas?"
Some time I shall go into the details of the arrival of the Belgian
children in Paris, with their terrorized looks, their screams of fear if
anyone approached them. I haven't yet the courage to go over it.
The memory I am going to call up is almost as frightful, though. It
was Sunday, August 30. All at once I got a telephone call from a
hospital where I often assisted: "Come, quick; they're bringing a lot
of wounded."
As I arrived they were carrying in a young woman, either dead or
unconscious. Everybody was under the strain of deep emotion. We
undressed her. Her body was horribly mutilated with hideous
wounds. She was the victim of the first "taube," as the Parisiennes
called the German aeroplanes. She was passing along the street,
humble and inoffensive. Her husband was at the front. She had a
child at home. From above death smote her. The French gave men
wings, and that is how the barbarians use them.
I left the young woman dead. I went to see the child. He was
playing at a table, laughing. The contrast was so sad I couldn't stand
it. I took away his toys. "You mustn't play any more just now, baby.
You will not see your mother again to-day." He looked up at me
sadly as if he understood. I took him in my arms and wept over him.
There is a little—so little—of what I have seen and heard.
Just as I finished writing I received a photograph from the painter
Guirand de Scévola, showing an old woman of sixty-five, who had
been attacked—then slaughtered. With it was a part of the Belgium
official report, not yet made public. I shall divulge the paragraph:
"September 11th, Josephy Louis Buron, of the Twenty-fourth
regiment of the line, declared that having been made prisoner by the
Germans, near Aerschot, they made him plunge both hands into a
kettle of boiling water. Dr. Thone, of the Twenty-fourth regiment of
the line, declared he saw the wounds of the hero." (Told in the New
York American.)
 LOST ON A SEAPLANE AND SET
ADRIFT IN A MINE-FIELD
Adventures on the North Sea

Told by a Seaplane Observer

The Great War has introduced new perils both on land and sea.
Here is the story of one of them—two men drifting through a
mine-field on a crippled seaplane, fending off mines with their
bare hands, and expecting every moment to be blown to pieces!
Daring adventure told in the Wide World.

I—"MY HUNDREDTH FLIGHT OVER THE NORTH SEA"

I completed my "century" of seaplane flights over the North Sea with
an adventure the like of which, I trust, will never occur again.
Many varied experiences have gone to total up that number of
ascents—some far from pleasant, others most interesting, and well
repaying one for occasional hardships.
The sequel to my one-hundredth flight, however, will take a lot of
effacing from my memory.
The atmosphere was a trifle thick when we started off from our base
with the intention of flying an ordinary hundred-and-fifty-mile
circular patrol.
The farther we progressed, the thicker grew the haze, till we at last
were travelling through dense fog.
We left at 7.30 a.m., and climbed to two thousand five hundred feet
to get above the heat-haze and fog over the water.
At eight-twenty-five, almost an hour later, the revolutions of the
eight-foot tractor began slackening perceptibly, and presently, to our
dismay, the engine stopped dead.
We were compelled to descend so quickly that there was no time to
send a wireless signal; in fact, I just barely managed to cut the
trailing aerial wire free before we struck the sea.
That I did so was a slice of luck, as, otherwise, the fuselage would
probably have been ripped up, and the machine capsized.
When the floats smacked the water we got quite a bump, and a
decided jar in the nape of our necks.
Fortunately, however, the under-carriage struts retained their rigidity
and did not buckle, and the seaplane rode the water right way up.
I will not worry the reader with a technical explanation of the trouble
which had befallen our engine. Sufficient to state that it was of so
serious a nature as to preclude us from any attempt at "patching her
up."
"Do you know where we are?" inquired the pilot, after we had
heartily chorused a round of expletives appropriate to such an
eventuality. I shook my head.
It must be remembered we had been travelling through fog most of
the journey, and therefore could not spot the regular aids to
maritime aerial pilotage, such as light-vessels, sandbanks, buoys,
and coast contours. In addition to this there are always air currents
about, to counteract a dead compass-reckoning alone.
By taking the mean of our calculations, however, we were eventually
able to place a finger on the approximate area where we believed
ourselves to be on the chart.
The result was anything but encouraging. We were at least fifty
miles from the shores of England, and in a neighbourhood devoid of
all shipping, even in times of peace. What was worse, it was
gradually borne in upon us that we were perilously near, if not
actually in, a most extensive mine-field!
Personally, I was feeling anything but buoyant, and the reason is not
far to seek. I had had the middle watch (12-4 a.m.) in the wireless
cabin ashore the previous night. A report then came through that
there was "something buzzing"—hostile submarines scudding round,
or Zeppelins or other aircraft—and I had the wireless of half-a-dozen
machines to overhaul, and superintend their going off. Then my own
turn came, and, minus breakfast or a bite of anything, off I went,
having had no food since the previous afternoon at five. Worse still,
I had not so much as a bite of "grub" about me, or even a smoke.
The pilot went through his pockets, and discovered one solitary
cigarette resting in state in his case. Being a sportsman, as well as a
companion in misfortune, he offered it to me, and, on my emphatic
refusal, halved it. So we both lit up whilst we reviewed the situation.
I don't believe I ever treated a smoke with greater care than I did
that half-cigarette. For aught I knew it might be my last.
When we had finished our cogitations the joint result of our thinking
was by no means hopeful.
II—"S. O. S." MESSAGE ON MACHINE GUN
A strong sun was beginning to shine through the intense heat-haze,
and the glare of the water was very trying.
At regular intervals I fired off a Very's light, with the idea of
attracting attention. As the coloured projectiles curved high into the
air and plunged downwards, so did our hopes seem to rise and fall.
When my Very's cartridges were exhausted, I commenced a series of
"S.O.S." messages in the Morse code on the machine-gun. The
nickel bullets of two trays of Mark VII. ammunition had winged
through the heavy air before we realized the practical futility of it all.
We therefore kept the remainder of our gun magazines intact, as
also a brace of heavy service revolvers, 455 calibre, fully loaded.
We were not to know what might crop up at any moment. A Taube
might find us and swoop down for bombing practice, or to make an
easy prey. We could not in any event be taken prisoners by hostile
aircraft, as there would be no space for us in a machine already full.
At any moment, too, a U-boat might pop up and either make a
target of us for their quick-firer or take us in tow for the Belgian
coast, which was uncomfortably near at hand.
However, come what might, we were in a mood to fight to a finish.
Unfortunately, my wireless transmitter was worked from the engine
direct, otherwise I might have rigged up an extempore aerial from
the spare reel carried, and sent a "S.O.S." from accumulators.
It is doubtful if such a scheme would have proved effective, but it
would have been worth trying. But in the circumstances I was
helpless.
The heat was now simply awful, the sea dead calm. We had taken
off our leather coats long since, and now rigged them up across the
fuselage overhead, for shelter from the sun's rays.
Presently it became so hot and stuffy on the seats that both the pilot
and myself took our boots and trousers off, climbed down on the
floats, and stretched ourselves along them in the comparative
shelter of the wings and fuselage body.
The stern part of the floats was, of course, submerged, so we lay
with our lower limbs under water, and felt cooler. This we did for
about three hours, each of which seemed an age.
What with the heat and the want of food, which caused a dull
throbbing in my temples, by noon I was in such a state that I did not
care what happened to us.
The pilot (poor chap) had only recently been married, and he rattled
along continually about his young wife.
I have no wish to be in like straits again, but if such a misfortune
should happen, I earnestly trust I shall not have the misfortune to
be beside a young fellow newly wedded! In the long weary time we
spent together I had the whole of his history, from childhood to
courtship, and I suppose he had mine!
What surprised us was the great number of logs floating about.
Apparently a timber boat had foundered somewhere close by.
Every log that hove in sight through the haze we thought was a ship.
It was a terrible time.
At intervals we either heard—or imagined we did—the engines of
aircraft. Sometimes they seemed all around us; sometimes a long
way off.
"Our only chance is a relief seaplane being sent after us," said the
pilot. "Otherwise we are done for!"
There was precious little chance of us ever being spotted, we
reckoned, owing to the extremely low visibility.
At least a dozen times, as the day wore on, we heard the
unmistakable roar of aircraft, and it was torture to listen to them.
"It's coming nearer. They will see us!" the pilot would cry, hopefully.
Then the sound would recede into the distance, and we would
become despondent again.
III—"WE WERE FLOATING OVER DYNAMITE"
It was extremely irritating, whilst anxiously following these sounds
with straining ears, to hear the swish, swish of the water across the
floats, the ripple as it rejoined the ocean again, and the creak, creak
of the great wings as we rose and fell with a squelch on the gentle
undulations of a swell.
These sounds eventually developed into a perfect nightmare. Every
swish and creak seemed to pierce our brains.
Eventually we climbed up into the seats again for a while and stared
our eyes out scanning the horizon with our powerful glasses. Every
piece of flotsam seen we dubbed a boat, till it drifted near enough to
make out detail.
The wind got up a little and died down again, but it shifted the haze
somewhat.
In the afternoon we saw a sight which gladdened our hearts.
High up to the nor'-west, and dropping towards us, was a bird-like
machine. Nearer and nearer it came, till we could hear the engines
clearly. Soon we identified her marks, which set our fears at rest. It
was a British 'plane.
We sprang up, gesticulated wildly, and fired a few pistol-shots just to
relieve our excitement.
She was a rescue seaplane from our own base, it appeared, and
presently she dropped on the water beside us and "taxied" as close
as she might.
Her pilot steered within twenty yards or so of us, and the observer
heaved overboard in our direction a huge vacuum flask.
Then, without stopping their engine, and waving cheerily, they
droned along the surface and tilted into the air again. We watched
her until the machine became a mere speck and finally faded into
the blue.
Then, and not till then, we remembered the flask. We were fated
never to taste its contents, however, for it floated past out of reach,
in the midst of a great school of giant jellyfish.
I have never been stung by one of these loathsome-looking
creatures, and I had no desire to be on this occasion. Neither had
the pilot, so the bottle floated out of sight without giving us anything
but moral support.
After this interlude our long impatient wait recommenced. The
episode had instilled hope into us, but the hours seemed to drag
more heavily than ever. There was nothing but sea on every hand—a
great circular expanse of glaring, shimmering water.
Presently schools of porpoises began to put in an appearance,
sporting about in their own unmistakable style. There must have
been hundreds of them. One group frolicked close around us, and
several times a glossy black tail caught one or other of the floats a
resounding smack.
The fabric of these floats is exceedingly frail, and we were rather
concerned about them. It seemed a pity to shoot the playful
creatures, particularly as their antics created a diversion, but we
trembled for the safety of the floats every time they were struck.
As the tide went down, several dark, spheroidal objects commenced
bobbing up by twos to the surface—on our starboard beam, as we
were floating at that time.
Through our glasses we could spot scores more of them in the
distance. No need to tell one another what they were. We knew—
deadly contact mines!
The nearest pair were only a matter of half a cable's length away,
and presently our worst ordeal commenced.
We were drifting towards them with the ebbing tide, and were now
on the fringe of the great mine-field, perhaps the most extensive
ever laid. Once in among those floating engines of death we should
have a lively time.
It was with no very pleasant thoughts that we considered this new
danger. I might have turned the machine gun on the mines, but
there was the risk of exploding instead of sinking them, and if one
went off it was fairly safe to assume that its mate, a couple of
fathoms away, would detonate in sympathy. I presume that this is
the underlying idea of distributing mines in this fashion.
During the next four hours these horrid death-traps gave us a
terribly anxious time. We had some very narrow shaves, for at low-
water hundreds were in sight, and as the seaplane drifted along we
were powerless to avoid them.
The pilot got on one float and I got on the other, and once or twice
we actually had to ward the mines off with our bare hands in order
to keep them from knocking against the machine. Had one of them
done so this story would never have been written. Fending off the
mines was a ticklish operation, as you may suppose. Great care had
to be observed in exerting our strength, and we had to place our
hands on parts of the casing of the mine that were devoid of horns,
or between two horns, if it was not floating high enough. While
engaged in this delightful occupation I went overboard twice, but
managed to scramble back safely without getting into trouble with
the mines.
Once a mine went off. It was too far away, however, for us to see
what caused the explosion. It is not improbable that a luckless
porpoise might have bent a horn in one of its leaps.
At length, to our heartfelt relief, the tide turned, and the mines
began to disappear under the water again.
By that time we were drifting nearly the opposite way again, carried
along by the flood-tide.
IV—"AN AEROPLANE COMES TO RESCUE"
Six o'clock came, by our chronometer—seven p.m. summer time—
and we were still intact, having for about ten hours been dependent
on our frail seaplane floats for buoyancy. Had the sea risen at all,
even to a decent cat's paw, we should have been below the surface
long ere this.
It was shortly after six o'clock, when—burnt almost black by the sun,
with parched throats and swollen tongues—we heard the sound of a
propeller chugging away at no great distance. The haze had
thickened again as the sun moved west, and at first we could see
nothing. In fact, we both thought we were dreaming.
But there was no mistake. The chugging and throbbing grew louder
and louder, and I fired three single pistol-shots into the air at
intervals. Thereupon the sound intensified, and out of the haze
ploughed a trim little armed motor-launch—officially known as an
"M.L."
She crept alongside very gingerly, lowered her dinghy, and took us
off. Then she made fast a line to the seaplane, and took her in tow
at a good seven or eight knots.
We were heartily welcomed by the bluff sailormen aboard.
Curiously enough, I did not feel thirst so badly as hunger. I am not
of a thirsty nature at any time, and perhaps that accounted for it.
The first mouthful of food was torture; it seemed to rasp the skin off
my throat. After that I ate ravenously. It was the first touch of real
hunger I had known, and after the experience, I vowed that if it lay
in my power I would never again see a poor beggar go hungry.
When our bodily wants had been attended to we settled down to a
comfortable smoke in the ward-room. The skipper, a Lieutenant
R.N.R., told us he had just made up his mind he was not going to
venture another fathom farther when he heard our shots. Owing to
the proximity of the mine-field he had been very anxious.
After our smoke we turned in for a sleep which only terminated
when the "M.L." reached the shores of Old England and her Diesel
oil-engines ceased throbbing! This was long after midnight.
They say our little experience has left its mark on us, but personally
I feel as fit as ever.
 HOW I HELPED TO TAKE THE
TURKISH TRENCHES AT GALLIPOLI
 An American Boy's War Adventures

Told by Wilfred Raymond Doyle, on His Majesty's

Ship "The Queen Elizabeth"

This is the first-hand narrative of an American boy's

extraordinary yet characteristic exploits, told from his own
viewpoint and in his own language. Young Doyle's noticeable
aptitude at telling his story may be accounted for by the fact
that he is a born journalist. His parents, who reside in Yonkers,
are people of education and refinement. The father is a blind
poet of some local repute, and at one time published a little
newspaper in the Harlem district of New York City. The special
causes which led to the enterprising lad's departure from home,
and how he came to enlist in the British Navy, are best detailed
by himself in the New York World.

I—STORY OF AN AMERICAN RUN-AWAY

At the age of nineteen I was employed in the shipping department
of a large publishing house at a salary of six dollars a week, with
small prospect of advancement. My family were in need of all the
help I could give. I grew restless, and one day February (1916)
suddenly decided to make a change. Instead of taking a car for
home I boarded a steamer for Boston, expecting to do better in that
city, and then to surprise my parents with my success. I could get
nothing better than a place as a "bus boy" in a lunch room. After
working there for three days I saw a chance of getting a better
position, but unfortunately was too late. I was delayed two hours
and that cost me my first job.
I could find nothing else to do, and the next day I signed on an
ocean steamer, Etonin, bound for Liverpool with a cargo of horses.
My job was working the donkey engine for getting the feed up out of
the hold; it was an easy job—two hours a day. The rest of the time
we played cards, and when we reached Liverpool I had one penny in
my pocket. The ship was not to return to Boston before fourteen
days, and I had either to secure some work or starve. There was
many a job I might have gotten but for the fact that I was an
American. At least that was the excuse given for refusing me
employment.
I had no choice but to go to the Naval Recruiting Office. I said I was
born in Dublin and was at once accepted. I received a half crown,
which was one shilling from the King, another from the Queen, and
six pence from the Prince of Wales. I signed for the period of
hostilities only, and that night had a good supper at the
Government's expense.
II—"HOW I REACHED THE DARDANELLES"
The next day I was sent to the training depot at Portsmouth, where
I received my uniform and kit. I was two weeks training with the
rifle and bayonet and one week at target practice. On April 16, after
physical examination, I was declared fit for service on His Majesty's
ships. That afternoon I was drafted to the torpedo boat destroyer
Lynx, which reached the Dardanelles in safety at noon of April 19.
There I was assigned for service on the Queen Elizabeth, which I
boarded two days later when she came out from the firing line for
ammunition.
In the distance the Queen Elizabeth appeared like a huge island,
with four trees in the centre, but on a closer view was seen to be an
immense floating fortress with huge guns, ready for action.
The complement of the Queen Elizabeth is twelve hundred men,
including all ratings. I was assigned to No. 4 boiler room, which to
my surprise, was not a grimy place but scrupulously clean, and
everything in it polished as bright as a mirror. The ship uses oil fuel
exclusively. My duties were: To keep the oil sprayers and steel combs
clean, to take the density of the water every four hours, to regulate
the supply of water and the fan engine for supplying the air pressure
to the fires, and lastly to test the different safety valves. All orders
are given by means of two telegraphs, an engine room telegraph
and an oil supply telegraph.
The Queen Elizabeth went into action from midnight April 21 to
midnight April 24. I was on duty without relief. During that time I
had four times a day biscuits and water, with a half pint of rum. At
noon I was allowed two hours' rest, but could not sleep on account
of the noise. Our ship was hit every few minutes.
During action the fire pumps are pounding tons of water over the
deck to prevent fire in case of a shell exploding on the wooden deck.
It was our duty to keep the pipes and connections clear, for the
water sucked up from the sea often contains foreign substances.
One occasion we were subjected to a heavy rapid-fire gun
bombardment. The structure shielding us was punctured like a piece
of Swiss cheese and the deck about us was splintered before the
guns on our ship found the range and destroyed the enemy's battery
of guns that were turned upon us. It was a miracle that the seven of
us escaped.
Once I was sent to the store room for tools. I had to pass the six-
inch guns and neglected to get a piece of India rubber to place
between my teeth; the result was a dislocated jaw from the shock of
the firing. I hastened to the doctor and pointed to my jaw. He put
his left hand on my head, and with his right gave me a couple of
"Jim Jeffries" punches, and, while I saw stars, reset my jaw.
On April 26 the Queen Elizabeth was ordered out from the firing line
to bring up troops to the Gallipoli Peninsula. The Royal Scots were
taken aboard from a transport in the Aegean Sea. We returned at
once and landed the Royal Scots safely under heavy fire.
We withdrew at once about ten miles from the enemy's range, and,
borrowing a telescope, I watched the Royal Scots, 1,100 strong,
make their heroic charge, which began at 2 P. M.
They advanced on the double and took the three rows of Turkish
trenches at the point of the bayonet without firing a shot. Then,
without waiting for reinforcements, they advanced two and a half
miles into the enemy's country. Their lines were gradually getting
thinner, and realizing that they were in a tight place, they began to
retreat. That is all that I saw. Corporal Joseph Nicolson was the only
survivor of that ill-fated regiment.
On May 8 the news of the sinking of the Lusitania reached us by
wireless, and the bombardment by the Queen Elizabeth became
doubly terrific. I think more damage was done to the enemy that
day than ordinarily in a week.
The next day there was a call for 1,000 men, 200 from each of the
five largest ships, to support the soldiers on land on May 9. I was
one of the number from the Queen Elizabeth, told off to go as
landing parties at 6 A. M. Every man received a rifle, bayonet, two
hundred rounds of ammunition, and two days' supply of food.
III—"TAKE THOSE TRENCHES OR DON'T COME BACK!"
On leaving the ship the commander's order was: "My boys, take
those trenches or don't come back." Six hours later we landed on
the Gallipoli Peninsula, and reached the trenches safely though
under heavy firing of the enemy. I was for twelve hours in the third
line of trenches, knee deep in mud and water. Our time there was
spent in sharpening our bayonets like razors.
At midnight we advanced to the first line trenches. All around us
were the dead and wounded of both sides. Four unsuccessful
attempts were made by the Turks to take our trenches, but each
time they were beaten back, with a heavy loss. Our side also
suffered heavily. Before we landed the British troops had lost 3,000
men in six attempts to take the Turkish trenches. The enemy's fire
had been so severe that the transports could not land
reinforcements without being sunk.
We navy men were told that the Turkish trenches must be taken at
all costs. They were only fifty yards in front of ours. At 10.15 A. M.
our rifles were loaded with fifteen rounds, the magazine safety catch
was put on and the respirators were adjusted over our faces. Not a
shot was to be fired in our charge.
Meanwhile our ships were firing on the enemy's trenches. At 10.25
the order rang out, "Cold steel!" We fixed our bayonets. At 10.30 the
bugles sounded the charge. Fifty men fell while getting out; but in
ten minutes we took the Turkish trenches. Our losses were 250 killed
and 200 wounded.
It is almost impossible to describe a bayonet charge. On the instant
of the order you spring out, jump or crawl from the trenches, with
bayonet fixed, and charge on the double. Sometimes you have to
creep to make an attack. You become like a raving maniac; your
senses seem to leave you. All around comrades are dropping, but
you do not think of them. Reaching the enemy's trench, a terrific
hand-to-hand struggle takes place. Strategy is the main point. Our
bayonets were eighteen inches in length, while those of the Turks
were all lengths from 12 to 15 inches. We wore the gas respirators
in our charge, as our commander thought that our appearance
would frighten the enemy. It did. We looked like black devils.
At 10.45 the Turkish trench was taken. After the victory our captain
made a brief address. Facing the dead and wounded with the tears
streaming from his eyes, he said:
"I am proud of my boys who fought so splendidly and did what
seven thousand soldiers failed to do in six attempts, losing three
thousand. You, a mere handful, one thousand strong, succeeded in
the first attempt. The army has much to thank the navy for."
The last was uttered loud enough to be heard by the soldiers in the
neighboring trenches. They were so sore about it that they would
not speak to us navy men for several days.
IV—THE TURKISH GIRL BEFORE THE FIRING SQUAD
One day we were allowed a few hours' leave to go where we
pleased. In our wanderings we came to a farm where women were
working in the fields. In one field was a huge haystack. Approaching
it, one of my comrades said that he would show how he killed six
Turks. He fixed his bayonet to his rifle and made a charge at the
haystack. There was blood on his bayonet when he withdrew it. We
ripped open the haystack and in the hollow found a young Turkish
girl trying to bandage her arm where my chum's bayonet had
wounded her. There were a cot, table and chair in the stack, and the
girl had a rifle with a telescopic sight, and a box of cartridges. We
were about to let her go, when she dropped a package which broke,
and thirty-one identification disks, such as are worn by every soldier
and sailor in the British Army and Navy, fell on the ground!
She was a sniper. We had to turn her over to our superior officer.
She was court martialed and ordered to be shot in a half hour. We
could not bear to see a woman face the firing squad, so we left the
place and went back to our trench. We stayed there until the troops
were landed and relieved us.
While in the trenches we went through many an ordeal, the chief of
which was the vermin that, combined with the heat and filthy water,
made life almost unbearable. When we returned to our ship all our
clothing was taken from us and burned. We were then subjected to
a bath of hot water containing some powerful disinfectant which
took away a part of our skin. New uniforms were given us and we
put them on our raw hides with a sense of unspeakable delight.
While on land we saw something of the Turkish sniper. He is a
sharpshooter, painted green from head to foot, as he is usually
hidden among the leaves of the trees. His cartridges are in a box
fastened to a branch above his head, and on his rifle is the famous
telescopic sight, an Austrian invention by means of which a child
could hardly miss the mark. When their hiding place was discovered
and they were shot, we let them hang from the branches as a
warning to others. If the sniper sees that he cannot escape, he
destroys his telescopic sight. No more than six of these wonderful
inventions had been found up to that date. I picked up one in the
Turkish trench and had it in my hand for a few minutes, but was
obliged to turn it over to my superior officer of the division to be
sent to the Government arsenal for examination.
... Shortly after our arrival in the Dardanelles one of the mine
sweepers was sunk and the body of a boy seaman floated by our
ship. One of the survivors of the sunken Irresistible jumped
overboard and found the boy was not dead, though unconscious. We
threw a rope and hauled them in. A marine stepped forward and
took the boy from the arms of his rescuer. As he was carrying him to
shelter a small shell from the enemy's gun blew off the marine's
head. A sailor snatched the boy away from him. For half a minute
the headless man, having his lungs still full of air, threw up his arms,
and dashed madly about the deck. This was the only casualty on our
ship during my service.
V—CAPTURED ON BELGIAN COAST
On May 23 we left the Dardanelles to have our guns refitted. May 27
we were fifteen miles off the Belgian coast and there we heard
heavy bombardment. The following day H.M.S. Drake asked for a
loan of fifty men from our ship. I was one of the fifty.
The Drake was trying to locate a heavy German battery, and a lucky
shot killed the gun crew but did not damage the guns. We fifty from
the Queen Elizabeth were sent ashore to destroy the guns by
blowing them up. We reached them under the heavy fire of the
enemy, took off the breeches and destroyed the mechanism. As we
were setting the dynamite to blow up these guns, a party of about
three hundred Germans surrounded us. Our rifles were stacked up
about thirty feet away and in running to reach them several of us
were wounded. I received slight flesh wounds in the arm and leg.
After being searched and relieved of all weapons, we were marched
to a barbed wire stockade, about a mile and a half inland, and were
told that we were to be sent to Germany the next day. There was
another stockade with British, French and Belgian prisoners near by,
and over the barbed wire they threw us a football to amuse
ourselves. We played football until dusk.
A German soldier was sent with a spade to dig a hole for another
post in support of the barbed wire gate. We played football all
around the field and managed to get the German soldier in our
midst. We bound and gagged him, seized his weapons and took his
spade. It was getting dark and no one suspected but that we were
still playing football.
We took turns in digging under the barbed wire fence a tunnel for
escape. While we were at work we had a genuine surprise. A
German sentry on his rounds, trod on a weak spot over our tunnel
and fell in, face downward. He could make no outcry as his mouth
was filled with grass and dirt. We immediately bound and gagged
him, took his weapons and left him there.
We all escaped through this tunnel and beat it for the coast as fast
as our legs could carry us. The searchlights of our ship were in
action and were playing all over the coast looking for us. One of our
number was a signal man. He ripped off his jumper and, tearing it in
two pieces, waved them over his head. The signal was seen—we
knew it because the guns of the ship were brought to bear over us,
to protect us from an attack in the rear, and recapture. We received
a flash light signal to lie down, and soon we heard the sound of two
engines. It was the ship's picket boats, mounted with machine guns
on stern and bow. We were conveyed in short order to the Drake.
All ships have a master of arms and a ship's corporal; they are the
ship's police, and they are always looking for trouble. As soon as we
were on the deck we were placed under arrest and taken before the
captain. The charges against us were: over-staying shore leave
fourteen hours, disobeying orders and general untidiness. We did, in
fact, look like a bunch of Hooligans. Several of us had no caps and
the faces of all of us were covered with blood and muck. Our new
uniforms were so torn that a rag man would not have given us two
cents for the lot.
The following are some of the captain's questions, and our answers:
"Where were you men?"
"Ashore, sir."
"Why were you not back in time?"
"The Germans would not let us come back, sir."
"Where are your rifles? And did you destroy the enemy's guns? What
happened to your uniforms?"
"We destroyed the guns, sir, but were captured. We tried to escape,
but were caught between liquid fire and poisonous gas. We lost part
of our uniforms trying to climb over the barbed wire fence, sir."
"You pack of fools!"
"Yes, sir."
Then the captain, smiling, congratulated us and ordered the steward
to supply us with new uniforms and send us back to our ship as
soon as possible. We went back next day, June 2.
VI—BACK TO TURKEY—THEN TO AMERICA
The Queen Elizabeth was ordered back to the Dardanelles and
remained there until July 26. Through the telescope we saw many
demolished Turkish forts and big black holes where clusters of
houses and groves had been.
On July 26 we sailed for Gibraltar. We left there on August 1 and
sailed for the North Sea and went in harbor to give the ship a
thorough overhauling. From August 10 to Sept. 5 we were cruising
around the North Sea and North Atlantic Ocean in search of the
German fleet. This sort of life, after the excitement of battle grew
wearisome to every one on board. Thoughts of home and family
came to me. There had been no chance to write or to have our
letters mailed. The only mail boat leaving the Queen Elizabeth was
sunk. I told the officer in charge that I was an American.
After hearing my story he sent a message to the Admiralty and they
ordered my discharge. I was sent to Portsmouth Naval Branch to
receive my final papers. On obtaining these I thought I was free; but
I was arrested for having failed to register as an alien when I first
landed in Liverpool.
I was brought before a magistrate and remanded for a week. Acting
on advice I wrote to the American Consul at London. The Consul
replied that he had been looking for me since June, and he
requested the magistrate to release me so that I could be sent back
to the United States. The letter to the magistrate took fifteen
minutes to read in court. It stated that the whole army had been
looking for me, at the instigation of my parents, through the
Secretary of State at Washington.
The magistrate discharged me at once, regretting my imprisonment
for a week and stating that it was no disgrace. I left Portsmouth the
next day, Sept. 25, for Liverpool but had to stop over in London for
several hours, awaiting the fast mail train. It was shortly after the
last Zeppelin raid and, being in uniform, I was allowed to pass the
lines, to look at the effects of the bombs. Many houses were
wrecked, streets torn up and soldiers were searching the ruins for
the missing. Now and then they recovered a body, usually that of a
woman or a child. The official death list reported 150 killed. I saw a
cartoon reprinted from a German paper, picturing the people of
London kneeling in prayer in their cellars during and after a Zeppelin
raid. But the fact is that the London police had their hands full
keeping the people from rushing out of their houses to get a glimpse
of the raider.
I reached Liverpool that night and the day following I signed for my
passage on the steamship Minian, sailing for Boston Oct. 9. While in
Liverpool I was offered a position in a munition factory as a gun
tester at a salary of four pounds per week, but I refused the offer
because I had secured my discharge from the British Navy for the
purpose of going home.
 "BIG-BANG"—STORY OF AN
AMERICAN ADVENTURER
A Tale of the Great Trench Mortars

Told by C. P. Thompson

"Big-Bang" was Tommy's name for one of our pioneer trench

mortars, invented and operated by a man named X——. The
author met X—— in a café not far from the front, and heard
from him the details of the story that is here set down. "So far
as I am aware," he writes, "the tale is perfectly true. I had it
confirmed by the men of the R. E. company to which X—— was
attached." Recorded in the Wide World.

I—THE SOLDIERS IN THE CAFE SALOME

It was at Nœux-les-Mines, in the Café Salome, at the bottom of the
old slag-heap by the station. After tea, there being no further parade
until the working party assembled at ten o'clock that night, I had
repaired thither to drink wine and smoke until closing time. As
always, the café was crowded with the men of half-a-dozen London
regiments, with Scotsmen in stained and muddy kilts, and French
artillerymen from the South. Later in the evening they would begin
to sing in unison—great roaring choruses swung and tossed from
café to café and taken up by the crowded-out groups in the street.
I had managed to secure a chair at a little table in the corner, and
for companion saw before me a small, grizzled man, about fifty,
whose blue eyes, despite the dark rings underneath them, were yet
singularly intelligent, keen, and clear. We exchanged a few remarks
whilst taking each other's measure, and then, apropos of my
description of a terrible bombardment by the German minenwerfers
which we had recently endured, he began to talk, and gave me a
rambling impression of his strange and original career, and especially
of his adventures in connection with his masterpiece, "Big-Bang"—a
device now extinct.
I will call him X——. Before his connection with the British Army I
gathered he had wandered widely in an up-and-down, rolling-stone
sort of fashion. The Klondike had known his store during the gold
rush. He was one of those men who did undefined but profitable
things in the Western States before the days of their organized
exploitation; made thousands of dollars and spent every cent of
them, roving here and there, never staying anywhere for long, as is
the way with these pioneers of the human race.
II—THE AMERICAN ADVENTURER TELLS HIS TALE
When the war broke out he was in the West, the manager of an
opera company touring the coast towns, and immediately he
determined to take a hand. At first he experienced considerable
perplexity as to how he was to get "mixed up" in the war. Apart from
his nationality, his small stature, a finger missing from his right hand,
and a pronounced limp—both legacies from the Spanish-American
war in the Philippines—seemed destined to preclude him from
serving in the army of any country in any capacity. He was even
refused by a party of Americans forming a Red Cross contingent for
duty with any of the belligerents willing to accept their service.
However, he remembered an old friend, a major of Engineers in
charge of a company at a China station, and he immediately hurried
from San Francisco across the Pacific to Hong-Kong, where he found
the —th Siege Company, R.E., under orders to move, and cursing
destiny, in the shape of the British War Office, which refused to allow
them to be in at the fall of Tsing-tau. Forthwith he attached himself
to them. His sole qualification consisted of an erratic but handy
knowledge of mechanics, picked up here and there—as chauffeur to
a Vancouver millionaire, as a greaser, ganger, and a stoker, but
principally during eighteen months of desultory employment in the
machine-shops of Pittsburg. After much argument concerning the
King's Regulations with regard to recruits and the position of a man
in the ranks, the major had taken him on the strength as mechanic
for the three motor-cycles owned by his command. In September,
1914, he left the Western theatre of war—quietly exultant, as I
imagine.
He was curiously frank as to his attitude towards the war.
"I have always liked big things, and I had to get into this somehow,"
he said, finishing a large cassis. "This war is the biggest thing that
ever happened to this old world, and if I were left out of it I should
go mad—I should, or commit suicide. That's how I feel about it.
Looking on is no good to me; I have to be right in it. But I've no
illusions. Neither your cause nor the Germans' nor the newspaper
gas of both parties interest me. If the Allies hadn't adopted me I
should have squeezed somehow into one of the armies of the
Central Powers. Of course, the party I joined, that party I stick to;
you can count on me to the last drop of my blood. But you take me
—I've no patriotism, as you understand these things."
They landed in France early in October, and within forty-eight hours
were with a corps at a point where the British forces lay resting after
the Marne and the Aisne. With those battles the operations passed
the mobile phase and began to settle down to the stagnation of the
trenches.
The novel conditions of warfare in the earth demanded new
methods and ingenious adaptations, and soon the Engineers found
themselves overwhelmed with orders from corps headquarters and
harassed by perplexed divisions and brigades. Bombs and explosive
missiles of all sorts were in great demand, but materials other than
Tickler's jam-pots were not to be procured. And pumps were
wanted; emplacements, redoubts, trenches, field works of all
descriptions required overseers from the Engineers to superintend
the working-parties, composed of uninitiated infantry.
III—CATAPULT THAT HURLS BOMBS
One day while he was busy upon a patent catapult the major came
to X—— and showed him a message from the corps, who,
introduced suddenly and unexpectedly to that formidable engine of
destruction, the minenwerfer, desired urgently some improvised
machine or gun wherewith to retaliate until supplies of the new
weapon arrived from home arsenals. Nor were the elaborate
specifications peculiar to all staff instructions lacking. The proposed
machine must be capable of hurling a heavy bomb a distance of not
less than two hundred yards; but at the same time, if a gun, it must
not require a powerful propelling charge. It must be portable and
sufficiently compact to allow of its introduction into a front-line
trench; its working must not demand intricate mechanical
knowledge, nor must more than four men be needed for its crew,
and so on and so forth. X——, if I recollect his narrative aright,
remarked, "Jehoshaphat!" and went away to a nearby café to
ponder out this problem in mechanics. By the next morning he had
planned and partly constructed the first of his famous simplified
mortars.
It was, so far as I remember the constructional details, merely a
large tube, about three feet long and with a diameter of six inches,
made of very thick sheet-iron and closed at one end by a block of
wrought iron, pinned and welded on. The barrel mounted on a
cradle, the bed weighed under half a hundredweight, and was
secured to the ground by long iron pins like glorified tent-pegs. The
ammunition consisted of huge canisters packed with gun-cotton and
exploded by a time fuse or a simple percussion detonator. And if one
did not look what he was doing, the bomb might easily be slipped
into the mortar detonator first—to the dire confusion of the gun-
crew. Gunpowder, rammed and wadded and ignited through a touch-
hole, discharged the canister upon its travel. This creation was
dispatched with precise instructions as to its use and probable
eccentricities, and all hoped it would "make good."
Two days later came the report that at the first discharge the mortar
had burst. It was requested that a stronger one be made, and,
further, that the engineer-constructor should accompany his engine
into the trenches, there to superintend its working. Thus one day X
—— descended upon the lines with a new and larger mortar of more
solid construction, one dubious artilleryman as assistant gunner,
canister, a bag of powder, and a ramrod.
I can imagine the breathless interest with which the garrison in the
trenches observed the loading of the mortar, the swift retirement
from its vicinity, and the stunned confusion following the first shot. It
went off with a stupendous roar, belching forth smoke and flame.
The canister, turning over and over in the air, was seen to describe a
mighty arc and fall upon a ruined house behind the German lines
and there explode mightily, demolishing the place as completely and
spectacularly as if a mine had been sprung beneath it. A great cheer
burst forth. The delighted soldiers promptly poured in "fifteen
rounds rapid," and a machine-gun rattled through a belt in honour of
the occasion and to follow up the bomb. The new weapon was voted
a huge success.
It was fired five times in all, two bombs failing to explode, one
excavating a ton or so of earth from the centre of No Man's Land,
whilst the fifth fell plump into the German fire-trench, levelling it for
half-a-dozen yards in either direction and sending high into the air a
vast shower of earth, rent sandbags, timber, and human fragments.
Then, just as a sixth projectile was being loaded, the German
artillery got to work. A storm of "whizz-bang" shells hurtled over,
exploding everywhere—in the air, on the ground, and sometimes
against the high parapet, which was sent flying. Two batteries of
heavy howitzers concentrated a slow, deliberate fire, dropping 5.2
and 9-inch shells in the zone of the mortar, which was buried under
tons of earth. At length the bombardment ceased, and rescue
parties came to dig out those men whose dug-outs had fallen in
upon them or who had been buried in the ruins of the trench. X——
had remained by his mortar and was rescued unconscious.
Yet, with the tenaciousness of his breed, he came back again—
having spent a week at the field ambulance's barn hospital and a
few days at his company's quarters—armed with a third and more
powerful mortar. This time he had taken the precaution to provide
himself with smokeless powder. The German artillery observers,
however, were on the look-out for him, and although there was no
longer a mountain of smoke to serve as a target, the position of the
mortar was disclosed by the enormous roar of its discharge, which
could be heard four miles away. Not five minutes elapsed before
half-a-dozen batteries, informed by telephone, opened a tremendous
fire and speedily rendered the vicinity untenable. Casualties were
high, and X—— and his weapon lost favour with the neighbouring
infantry.
IV—"BIG-BANG" HIS ONLY FRIEND
Then this intrepid man mounted "Big-Bang" upon a base to which
were affixed four small wheels with broad treads. Having fired the
mortar, he would trundle it away down the trench as fast as he could
go, invariably getting clear of the fatal area before the shells began
to fall. Then he would stop and fire another shot and again make off,
dragging his mortar at the end of a rope. His ammunition he placed
in recess here and there along the line. The enraged infantry took to
heaving the canisters over the parapet until one so thrown exploded,
blowing in the trench, upon which they left them severely alone. But
whenever the maker of those canisters appeared with his mortar
round the corner of the traverse they cursed him heartily.
In this way X—— became the best-hated man from Richebourg to
the sea. Refused admittance to dug-outs, he was obliged to sleep on
firing-platforms, on the floors of side trenches, or in saps where
night working-parties trod on him. No one spoke to him except to
utter oaths. Men said upon seeing him:—
"Here comes the Kaiser's best friend!"
Sarcastic remarks were also passed on his mortar; and, strangely
enough, these hurt him more than personal abuse. He had come
almost to love his creation. Hatred of it he could tolerate, but
anything savouring of contempt; anything derogatory uttered
against its power as a destroyer, touched him to the quick; and I
fancy singularly biting language was heard in those winter trenches
of 1914 and 1915.
So he dragged on his solitary existence—desolate, hated, yet feared
because of his power of avenging himself by firing his weapon from
any spot he pleased, and thus dooming it to a tremendous "strafing"
by the enemy. He wanted someone to own him, and tried to attach
himself to the artillery, but they refused to have anything to do with
him. The thing his peculiar nature found it hardest to endure was
the knowledge, gradually forced upon him, that he was "out of it," a
mere independent unit belonging actually to neither side, a man
whose decease many of the British, equally with the Huns, would
have hailed with much glee.
This must have weighed upon him. Possibly he brooded. And all the
time, with an invincible obstinacy that was almost heroic, he fired
and fled and fled and fired, retreating sometimes up, sometimes
down the trenches, dodging the shells all day and sometimes at
night. And then he broke down.
"It was one of those illnesses your Army doesn't recognize officially,"
he told me. "It began with a sort of tired, discouraged feeling, and I
used to have queer dreams. The noise of 'Big-Bang' going off made
me jump like a marionette. I'd sweat and grow dizzy and my knees
trembled and my stomach rose. I fell down one day and they came
and took me away to the field ambulance, and after a bit they sent
me down to Boulogne. I don't quite know what happened there
during the first weeks. But when I got better they gave me a pretty
good time—made quite a fuss of me, in fact. The colonel wanted to
send me to England, but I told him how great I am on seeing this
war through, and he grunted and said he'd see what he could do.
When I came out I found this staff job waiting for me. It's not what
I'd like exactly, but I suppose I'm getting old now. Still, we're close
to the guns and I have a pretty free hand here, and can make trips
to the trenches to say 'How-do' to the boys and see how things are
getting along. Oh, yes; it's not so bad. But I was sorry to leave old
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