56 OUTLINES OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



River Valley went in for wheat-raising? Explain. Is a one-crop 

 system profitable to the railroads ? Why ? Is there a suitable degree 

 of diversification which is still more profitable ? Why ? 



8. A bill was introduced in the present Congress (1916-17) 

 designed to limit the period for which any food products might be 

 held in cold storage to three months. Was it a wise measure? 

 Explain just what effect it would have upon the present organization 

 of the egg, butter, and meat business. 



9. "The general belief that any reduction in freight rates will go 

 to the producer is entirely erroneous so far as it applies to wheat. 

 The reduction which was intended for the producer in fact went to 

 the consumer, reducing the price to the farmers of the entire world. 

 Even if the entire freight charge were wiped out, it would not, in the 

 long run, add one penny to the price received by the farmer, because 

 sellers in the Liverpool market would offer wheat lower." Is this 

 argument sound? Might it appear to be quite true under certain 

 circumstances and doubtful or not true under others ? Does the fact 

 that this statement was based upon the experience of 1898 have any 

 significance ? that it was uttered by a Dakota farmer ? 



10. "The farmers' elevators are slowly, year by year, driving out 

 the independent and the line elevators. Now they are trying to get 

 co-operatively owned terminal elevators. There is also a movement 

 for state-owned terminal elevators. Thirty years ago the railroads 

 owned and controlled the terminal elevators, for in no other way 

 could adequate storage be found for their grain shipments. Abuses 

 of various kinds arose, but there also grew up adequate government 

 supervision and control." What advantages can you point out that 

 there might be from taking terminal elevators out of the control of 

 the railroads ? out of control of other private corporations ? Would 

 it be better to make them state institutions or to have them owned 

 and operated co-operatively ? 



ADDITIONAL REFERENCES 



Johnson and Huebner, Railway Traffic and Rates. 



Weld, The Marketing of Farm Products, chap. xi. 



, Private Freight Cars and American Railways (Columbia Studies, 



1908). 



White, "Demurrage Information for Farmers," Bulletin 191, U.S. Depart- 

 ment 0} Agriculture. 



" Reducing the Cost of Food Distribution," The Annals, November, 1913. 



National Conference on Marketing and Farm Credits, Proceedings of the 

 third annual conference. 



King, A Study of Trolley Light Freight Service and Philadelphia Markets. 



" Economic Surveys of County Highway Improvement," Bulletin 393, U.S. 

 Department of Agriculture. 



