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(iv) An inspection of his account book, showed that the
shopkeeper had credit dealings with the majority of Dhed
families belonging to the village and a few Kolis, Kanbis
and Rajputs residing in the surrounding villages. It is
interesting to note that the amount of credit given to
Dheds is based on their earnings in Bombay, as domestic
servants to Europeans.
Of greater importance than all this is for us to remem-
ber, that the main sources of the shopkeeper's profits are :
(i) he gives his customers short weights and measures,
and (ii) he keeps the retail price as high as possible. Thus,
the farmer in whom we are interested, is hit hard by his
purchases through the middleman.
The solution in this case lies in the development of a co-
operative store l for the sale of sundries. The volume of
business of such a store may be increased by adding
clothes as a commodity to be sold. We found that the
grocer, we examined, started his shop about seven years
ago with a paltry capital of Rs. 200 borrowed from the
local co-operative credit society.
We shall now study the other aspect of marketing,
from the standpoint of the farmer as a producer. This
is the usual method in which the bulk of farm produce is
disposed of.—Almost all cereals and pulses are sold to
middlemen at Bulsar or Khergam, or to one of the vil-
lagers, who does the work of a middleman. Even in the
case of commercial crops with the exception of gul at
times, this is the method adopted. Grass is almost inva-
riably sold to a Mahommedan merchant at Dungri, a rail-
way station about six miles to the north-west of Atgam.
This merchant subsequently exports it to Bombay.
Besides the farm produce, there is an important article
namely, eggs, which are often sold to an agent of some
l While making this suggestion, we are conscious of the failure of the
co-operative store at Gaderia, a village 9 miles to the south-west of
Atgam. We must mention that the failure was due to lack of business
knowledge on the part of its administrators. As its liquidator found
out, the store contained articles which had no market in the locality
concerned.