marketings was already laid in large potential market supplies brought about 

 by the large 1926 lamb crop and the accumulation of old stuff during the re- 

 stocking period. While prices of both wool and lambs show a recession from 

 levels of 1924 and 1925, 1926 operations of sheepmen have been relatively profit- 

 able. S'heep and wool income for 1926 was $22,355,000 compared with $19,494,000 

 in 1925 and $15,501,000 in 1924. 



The dairy industry continued to increase production during 1926 that met 

 generally with good prices. Total value of the industry to farmers in 1926 was 

 $10,028,000 compared with $8,603,000 in 1925 and $7,282,000 in 1924. Poultry 

 and bees are other livestock items have been growing steadily and have recorded 

 gains again in 1926 income. 



Miscellaneous sources of crop income including flax, potatoes, beans, peas 

 for seed and canning, sugar beets, apples and alfalfa seed show mixed changes 

 in relative contributions to income in 1926. 



1926 PRICE MOVEMENTS 



One of the most important considerations of the grower of crops and the 

 breeder of livestock is the trend of prices for the commodities he is producing 

 and the relation of these prices to the prices of the things he buys. 



Since the war the recession from high war prices for agricultural commodi- 

 ties has been greater in most cases than was the drop in prices of most non- 

 agricultural commodities. This explains the situation where with many farm 

 products selling at levels above those prevailing in 1913, the farmer and livestock 

 producer has been buying less for his dollar than he did with the generally lower 

 farm prices of 1913. 



To measure this discrepancy, it is necessary to compute the percentage that 

 present farm prices bear to pre-war prices and the percentage present non-agri- 

 cultural commoditity prices bear to pre-war non-agricultural commodity prices. 

 Such percentages, using the pre-war prices as 100 per cent, are called index num- 

 bers and by dividing the index of agricultural prices by the index of non-agricul- 

 tural commodity prices, we obtain the purchasing power of the farmers' dollar. 



A MONTANA STRAWBERRY CREW 



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