54 



Agricultural Prices 



The 1907-191 G ratio between Dun's index number and whole- 

 sale prices of certain farm products is given in the following table: 



January 

 February 

 March . . . 

 April . . . . 



May 



June .... 



July 



August . . 

 September 

 October . . 

 November 

 December 



o — <■ 



o^ ZJ ■„ 



.499 

 .503 

 .514 

 .537 

 .555 

 .551 

 .572 

 .602 

 .582 

 .559 

 .537 

 .518 



With Dun's index number at $245 for December of 1919, the method 

 of finding the index price of hogs is to multiply $245 by .0568, which 

 gives $13.92. 



It is not claimed that the ratio between Dun's index number and 

 hogs, for instance, is as constant as the ratio between hogs and 

 corn. In the decade of the '60's, hogs sold for one-third lower in 

 relation to Dun's index number than" in the decade ending in 1916. 

 There has been a constant tendency for farm products to sell con- 

 stantly higher in relation to Dun's index number. And this tend- 

 ency doubtless will continue until population becomes stationary, 

 altho there may be several years at a time when the tendency is ap- 

 parently halted because of improvements in agricultural efficiency. 

 In the main, the possibility of improvements in industrial efficiency 

 is so much greater than in agriculture that we may expect that 

 agricultural prices will stand in constantly higher ratio to other 

 prices, until finally the increase in population is checked. 



Working out ratios between Duns index number and retail 

 prices as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we find that 

 as an average of the 1907-1916 period, .183 of Dun's index number 



