72 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 



arrival at our seaports of shiploads of foreign 

 products such as this country produces in ex- 

 portable surplus. This became clear when we 

 learned that a bushel of grain could be shipped 

 from South America to New York for 12 cents 

 while it cost 38 cents to ship a bushel of wheat 

 from Mimieapolis to New York. Another in- 

 dication of the change in world trade is shown 

 by the fact that cottonseed cake needed for feed- 

 ing cattle in the middle western states could be 

 shipped cheaper from Texas to Holland than 

 from Texas to Kansas. 



A car of grain shipped from the Texas Pan- 

 handle to market at an expense of $525 brought 

 the producer $475. Texas and Florida truck 

 farmers shipped many a carload of vegetables 

 and received nothing in return except a bill for 

 the balance due on freight and commission 

 charges, and yet the products were not sold 

 at excessively low prices to producers in the city 

 market. A car of lettuce from a southern truck 

 grower cost $491 for freight and brought $339 

 when sold. It cost more to ship California 

 products than it did to grow them and in many 

 instances the profit was more than wiped out. 



The live stock industry was affected the same 

 as crop production and cattle rates between 



