THE FARMER'S WAR AGAINST MONOPOLIES. 329 



Difference. Freight 



Price. Perbu. Per ct Bates. 



New York 87 2-3 



Cincinnati 642-3 23 41 41 



Chicago 62 1-3 25 1-3 45 1-5 45 



" Thus even in corn, the average rate for three years 

 at these three markets corresponds exactly with the 

 summer rate of transportation between them. 



" In spite of wide fluctuations, ' corners/ and local 

 disturbances, the tendency of Western markets is to 

 approximate closely during any term of years to the 

 rates at which the surplus of products of the farm can 

 be shipped to and sold in Eastern markets. 



" Consequently, an increase of one cent per bushel in 

 cost of transportation ordinarily costs the Western 

 farmer one cent per bushel in the selling price of his 

 crop. Neighborhood consumers, millers, produce mer- 

 chants, cattle-feeders, do not ordinarily pay more than 

 the price fixed by Eastern quotations less the rate of 

 transportation, because they know that millions of 

 bushels all around them must find a market at the 

 East, or be wholly lost. 



" Cotton was ' king,' only because it could bear trans- 

 portation, its value being great in proportion to its bulk. 

 Hay would wear the crown, if, instead of one cent, it 

 was worth twenty cents a pound. Crops differ very 

 widely in their dependence upon cost of transportation, 

 and hence the question of transportation affects the 

 Southern and Southwestern States much less than the 

 States of the Northwest. Wool excepted, Northern 

 crops vary in value, from about two cents per pound for 

 wheat to less than one cent for potatoes. But tobacco 

 is worth eight, sugar ten, and cotton nineteen cents a 

 pound. Transportation of cotton one hundred miles 



