52 FARM MANAGEMENT 



All other factors limiting the type of farming affect the 

 result, but next to soil and climatic limitations the freight 

 and express rates and cost of handling produce are the most 

 important factors in determining the type of farming. 



The problem seems to be little understood by farmers, 

 agricultural colleges, or city business men. Experience 

 forces farmers to abandon types that are too far out of 

 adjustment, but frequently the wrong cause is assigned. 

 44. Transportation and crop-prices and crop-produc- 

 tion. Table 5 gives the average farm values of certain 

 crops on December first for the five years 1907-1911 in- 

 clusive. The states are arranged in order, extending 

 from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean. 

 Most of the products are cheaper in eastern Nebraska and 

 western Iowa than at any other point. From here they 

 are shipped both ways. All prices are compared with 

 the Iowa price as 100 per cent. The primary factor in 

 fixing the differences in these prices is the cost of trans- 

 portation to the centers of population. For prices of other 

 products and for other states, see Table 83, page 576. 



Massachusetts has a good climate for hay-production, 

 but the local supply is not sufficient to feed the horses and 

 dairy cows. Hay must be shipped in. The high cost of 

 shipment raises the price, not only of the hay shipped in, 

 but of that grown in Massachusetts. Corn is also shipped 

 in, but the cost of shipment is less in proportion to its value. 

 The farm value of hay is 226 per cent of the Iowa price, 

 corn 166 per cent, oats 157 per cent. Wheat is so little 

 grown that no farm price is reported. The Massachusetts 

 farmer can grow wheat and can get perhaps a fifth more 

 than the Iowa price, but he can get two and one-fourth 

 times the Iowa price for his hay. He would be very 

 foolish to grow wheat. 



