AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH IN NEW HAMPSHIRE 15 



nies and when the minimum of services were taken in connection with the 

 lower price. 



Larger amounts of the higher analyses fertilizers are being used with 

 a savings to purchasers but too little progress has been made in this direc- 

 tion. Demands for certain chemicals for war purposes temporarily affected 

 th availability of certain chemicals for high analyses fertilizers, but it is 

 believed they will be used in increasingly large quantities after the war. 



L. A. Dougherty 



Recent Supply-Price Relationships for Potatoes 



It is a well known fact that the per unit price of potatoes is relatively 

 low in years when commercial producers have a large crop to sell, and that 

 the price is relatively high in years when there is a small crop to sell. The 

 deviation of potato prices from normal, however, is greater for small crops 

 than for large crops ; consequently, producers realize a greater gross in- 

 come in years of short crops. The relation is not constant over a long 

 period of years, thus corresponding price relatives vary according to cur- 

 rent demand, which, for potatoes, is characterized as "inelastic," a purely 

 relative term. 



An investigation of the supply-price relationships for potatoes during 

 the period 1900 through 1941 reveals facts which should be considered in 

 planning for the postwar period. 



The long-time trend in the per capita production of potatoes (repre- 

 senting per capita consumption) is downward. During this 42 -year period, 

 there have been no relatively large crops of potatoes since 1928. The year- 

 to-year deviation from average was much less during 1929 to 1941 than 

 during any previous period since 1900. Potato prices (U. S. farm) dur- 

 ing these crop years of relatively light production (1929-1941), however, 

 were relatively lower in purchasing power than for crops of similar size 

 duing earlier years, but the price was more sensitive to changes in supply, 

 particularly from 1930 to 1941. This new supply-price relationship is evi- 

 denced by a segregation of these 12 years (1930 to 1941) when each year 

 of the entire period 1900 to 1941 is arranged on a dot chart showing the 

 relation between per capita production and the December U. S. farm price 

 corrected for price level. Thus, the period 1930 to 1941 has established a 

 new demand curve to represent the supply-price relationships for potatoes. 

 During this period production per capita varied between the relatively 

 narrow limits of 10.5 per cent below average and 11.0 per cent above 

 average, whereas a free-hand curve indicates that corresponding price 

 changes ranged between 65 per cent above average and 27 per cent below 

 average. 



In the aljsence of ceiling and support prices during the postwar period, 

 :t may be assumed that the supply-price relationships for potatoes will re- 

 turn to the 12-year prewar period and not to a relationship representing an 

 earlier or longer period, unless, of course, the demand curve shifts again 

 as a result of changes in habits of consumption, or of some other unfore- 

 seen cause. 



H. C. Grinnell 



