4 SUMMARY ANNUAL REPORT 



case of wheat. In 1912 it cost 30 cents a hundred for freight on wheat 

 from Bozeman, Montana, to Minneapolis. At this time, ten years later, 

 it costs 42 cents, an increase of 12 cents a hundred pounds, or 40 per 

 cent in transportation costs. Expressed another way, this land, in- 

 stead of being 1,000 miles away from Minneapolis as he thought when 

 he bought it, is 1,400 miles away and his wheat when he gets it there 

 is worth not one cent more. The situation calls for well-thought-out, 

 constructive policies on the part of all public agencies having con- 

 tact with agriculture. 



Marketing" Concentrates: We must work for reduced freight rates 

 but in addition, production must be shaped to meet existing conditions. 

 Producers have no direct control of freight rates, which have increased 

 to the point that old methods simply will not do. If freight takes too 

 great a share of the final selling value of the crops we are growing, 

 then the obvious thing to do is to produce and sell crops of which 

 freight takes a smaller share. That means: (1). The production of 

 that for which the local demand exceeds the present supply, or that 

 for which there is a considerable market near at hand now supplied 

 by shipments from points more distant than Montana; and (2), the 

 production and sale of commodities having highly concentrated value, 

 of which freight takes the smallest possible share of the final selling 

 price. Mainly these are secondary products secured by feeding or 

 manufacturing crops grown on the land. 



One outstanding example of the first form of desired production 

 is pork growing. Information collected by the Department of Agri- 

 culture on three markets — Portland, Spokane and Great Falls — shows 

 that in the year 1921, the number of head of live hogs shipped through 

 Montana from South Dakota and Nebraska to Portland and Spokane, 

 including 16,000 head shipped into Montana from those states for 

 slaughter at Great Palls, was 212,000. The cost of freight paid on 

 these shipments was approximately double what the same shipments 

 from Montana points would have been. 



The second form of production is illustrated by the following table, 

 showing the toll or percentage which freight takes of the final selling 

 price at terminal, of crops sold in their original form compared with 

 the same information concerning commodities of greater concentration 

 of value. 



Freight charge, terminal selling value, and percentage of final sales 

 price taken to pay freight. Figured on basis freight from Great Falls, 

 Montana, to Chicago, except wheat, figured Great Falls to Minneapolis. 



Freight Cost 

 Commodity Freight Per Cwt. Chicago Price Per Cwt. Per Cent. 



♦Wheat 42 2.00 21 



Hay 72 1.20 60 



Barley 49% 1.40 35 



Oats 49V2 . 1.35 37 



Potatoes 831/2 .90 93 



Butter 2.73 48.50 5 1-3 



Cattle -- --^- 71V. 11.00 61/. 



Lambs 76 13.00 6 



Hogs 78 8.25 91/2 



♦Wheat figured on Minneapolis basis. 



Make Better Bargainers: The positive service which the state 

 owes toward improvement of the relative position of agriculture is to 

 assist farmers to become more efective bargainers in the sale of their 

 crops. This may not be done by the State fixing the margin of profit 

 of those whose service consists in handling farm crops; nor by fixing 

 a price since a guaranteed price could not conceivably be considered a 

 state function; but by placing the farmer in possession of informa- 

 tion and avenues of marketing that shall remove from him as much of 



