PRICES OF PRODUCTS 



whole crop is consumed at home. Over three- 

 fourths of the maize crop i-s consumed in the county 

 where grown. Only one-fifth of it enters into 

 the internal commerce of the country, and from 

 five to ten per cent., only, enters into foreign dis- 

 tribution. Maize is used largely for the feeding 

 of stock. From year to year farmers count on 

 selling about so many fat cattle and hogs, and it is 

 for this purpose that most farmers grow maize. 

 When the crop is short, as in 1901, the shortage 

 here is not balanced, as it is apt to be in the case 

 of wheat, by good crops in other countries, be- 

 cause there is no country which ships maize to the 

 United States in appreciably large quantities. 



The demand for pork is fairly regular and so 

 is that for fat cattle, and the result f a short maize 

 crop shows itself at once in the price of maize and 

 only less directly in the price of pork and beef. 



But the difference between maize and wheat with 

 respect to the price-determining conditions in the 

 United States is only one of degree. This coun- 

 try is an exporter of maize in ordinary years and 

 any relatively small increase in the size of the 

 American maize crop may be balanced by a short 

 crop in some of the other countries which com- 

 pete upon the European market. 



The potato market is still more local than that 



for maize. Each locality is more dependent upon 



the local supply and the price is influenced 



much more by variations in the yield of the local 



i43 



