120 THE FARMER'S OUTLOOK 



in European markets is affected by the costs 

 incurred by the shipper. Two views of the 

 effects of higher average freight costs may be 

 stated as a dilemma. If the cost of freight 

 is deducted from the price paid to the producer, 

 the smaller net return received for his crop tends 

 to deter him from growing wheat and other bulk 

 products. If, on the other hand, the freight is 

 added to the price, the average cost of imported 

 wheat supplies is increased. During the last 

 eighteen months freights have ruled high, in 

 many cases quite 50 per cent, above the normal. 

 Without hazarding an opinion whether these 

 high rates will be maintained, it may not be out 

 of place to point to higher wages and increased 

 cost of fuel, which, on the one hand, tend to keep 

 up freights, and on the other to the economies 

 of transportation brought about by the larger 

 ships now employed, which tend to reduce them. 

 It should be remembered that shipowners can 

 always lay up tonnage when freights are unre- 

 munerative, and for this reason it would appear 

 that the tendency towards higher freights is 

 likely to be of a permanent nature. With meat 

 and dairy products the freight-factor is not likely 

 to be important. 



