COMPETITIVE NATURE OF GRAIN TRADE 



339 



Farm Values of Five Leading Crops, Ten Years 



(From United States Yearbook of Agriculture). 



the point when " production and consumption look each other in 

 the face," that we can no longer export, yet, in the face of all of 

 these dire predictions, the exports of wheat during the last ten 

 years greatly exceed the amount of wheat exports during any 

 other ten years in our history. When such distinguished scholars 

 as Liebig and Sir William Crookes err greatly in their attempts to 

 forecast future wheat conditions, who would dare attempt to say 

 what the next ten years may bring forth? l 



Competitive Nature of Grain Trade. The United States 

 Department of Labor has for many years made a study of food 

 prices, in order to know what the consumer's dollar is able to 

 purchase. A study was made by this Department into " Wheat 

 and Flour Prices from Farmer to Consumer." 2 The investigator 

 was impressed with the highly competitive nature of the business 

 in this field. He expressed his findings in these words: 



"In a survey of the distribution of wheat and flour, three things are notice- 

 able: The intensely competitive character of the business, the excess in the 

 equipment for distribution, and the desire for independence of the people 

 engaged in production and distribution. If one farmer will not sell his wheat 

 at the price offered, another farmer will . . . Beginning with production, 

 there are more seeding and harvesting machines in the hands of farmers than 

 would be needed if there were cooperation in production and each machine 

 kept in operation the entire harvest season. There are more elevators in the 

 wheat area than are needed, each operating most of the time on less than 

 full capacity. In some sections there is useless duplication of railway trackage. 

 More grain jobbers and commission men are in the field than can find continu- 

 ous business. It is asserted that the mills of the United States could grind 

 all the wheat raised in the United States in 144 days (24 hours per day)." 



1 Crookes, Sir William, The Wheat Problem. New York and London, 

 1900. Same (3d Edition), 1917. Conrad, Dr. J. Liebig's Ansicht von der 

 Bodenerschopfung und ihre geschichtliche, statistische und national okono 

 niische Begriindung. Kritisch gepriift. Jena, 1864. 



2 Bulletin 130, United States Department of Labor; Bureau of Labor 

 Statistics, Washington, August 15, 1913, p. 14. 



