volume, a better quality and a greater variety of mer- 

 chandise. 



Farming of Basic Importance 



Farming is the industry of basic importance. To 

 illustrate, in normal times about forty per cent of the 

 cost of manufacturing is wages. Over forty per cent 

 of the average city family expenditure is for food. 

 In other words, nearly half of the cost of production 

 is labor, and about half of the cost of maintenance of 

 labor is food. Hence, in that nation and in that sec- 

 tion in which agriculture is backward and the cost of 

 production of food is high, manufacturing is carried 

 on at a disadvantage. Conversely, in those sections 

 where more efficient agriculture keeps down the cost 

 of food production, manufacturing can be carried on 

 more advantageously. 



Until recent years the United States has only to a 

 small extent exported manufactured articles. Its 

 exports have consisted primarily of food and raw 

 materials. The greater portion, therefore, of our 

 manufacturing superstructure has rested upon the 

 markets furnished by the products of the land. What- 

 ever, therefore, affects the prosperity of the basic 

 markets soon affects the prosperity of the secondary 

 markets. If, therefore, it can be determined what 

 the conditions are likely to be in the farm market 

 following the war, it will furnish the best basis on 

 which to estimate future merchandising possibilities 

 in both the farm and the city market. 



The Upward Trend of the Farm Market 



The story of the farm market is a story of the 

 struggle of a market upward. The farm output of the 

 United States in 1879 was about $1,500,000,000. See 

 Chart 3. For the next eighteen years its growth was 



[13] 



