THE INFLUENCE OF CROPS UPON BUSINESS 9 



40 per cent higher in September or October than in May or 

 June. A bumper crop in the case of a commodity like wheat, 

 which is so largely consumed at a long distance from the place 

 of its production, is consequently a source of great profit to the 

 railroads concerned, while a poor crop means diminished traffic 

 and reduced earnings. 



5. Finally, the success or failure of certain crops is also of 

 significance for those industries into which the crop enters as a 

 raw material. A failure of the wheat crop will obviously depress 

 the milling industry, and a failure of the cotton crop will curtail 

 the earnings of the cotton factories, not only those in the vicinity 

 of the cotton-growing states, but those in New or old England 

 as well. A failure of the corn crop similarly will diminish the 

 profits of cattle-raising, may work injury to the packing interests, 

 and to some extent may affect also the distillers of whisky. 



There are, then, five important ways in which the conditions of 

 agriculture are likely to influence general business : (i) by affect- 

 ing the community's consumption of other goods ; (2) by affecting 

 the solvency and credit of farmers and those engaged in dealings 

 with them ; (3) by affecting the balance of trade and the bank 

 reserves; (4) by affecting transportation interests; (5) by affect- 

 ing manufacturing interests for which the agricultural product is 

 a raw material. 



Obviously, the greater the proportion of the population of a 

 country that is engaged in agriculture, the more severely the 

 country will be affected by a sudden fluctuation in the crops ; 

 and, as so large a proportion of the American people are occu- 

 pied with agricultural pursuits, we should naturally expect the 

 condition of the crops to be of greater influence upon trade condi- 

 tions in this than in many other countries. Those who live in the 

 lar^e cities or are familiar only with such infertile regions as the 

 Atlantic seaboard are apt to forget that we are still very largely 

 an agricultural people. According to the census of 1900, out of 

 a total of twenty-nine million persons reckoned as gainfully 

 occupied, more than ten millions were engaged in agricultural 

 pursuits. That is to say, more than one third of those engaged 

 in gainful occupations were connected with farming of one or 



