AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



crop than in the case of maize and wheat. Some 

 regions are regularly wheat sellers, others wheat 

 buyers, from year to year ; but in the case of pota- 

 toes, the aim of the vast majority of the producers 

 is simply to supply their own wants or to meet 

 the demands of the local markets, and the same 

 region may have a surplus one year and a deficit 

 the next. The cost of shipping potatoes is a 

 larger percentage of their total value than in the 

 case of wheat, and as the surplus of one year can- 

 not be kept until the next, the local price will be 

 relatively low in case there is a surplus, while in 

 case of a deficit the local price will be relatively 

 high. Clover seed is a good example of a very 

 uncertain crop, and it is well known that, for this 

 reason, the price of this article fluctuates very 

 greatly from year to year. 



The prices of the animal products of the farm 

 must necessarily sustain some more or less definite 

 relation to the prices of the crops on which the 

 live stock industry is based. In general it is true 

 that in a country where grazing lands are abun- 

 dant and where the prices of hay and grain are 

 low, the prices of cattle and dairy products will 

 be lower than in a country like England, where 

 grazing lands are scarce and feed stuffs are dear. 



When long periods are taken into account, the 

 general principle seems to hold true in any single 

 country that a rise in the price of feed stuffs will 

 result in a rise in the prices of animal products. 



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