2 BULLETIN 594, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Two sets of factors are concerned in producing variations in farm 
or producers’ price. One set has to do with the general price level 
of a given product; the other set is regional in its effect and divides 
the United States into sections according to price disparities. Cli- 
matic changes (affecting the outcome of the harvest), the outbreak of 
war, changes in the purchasing value of money, and other factors 
produce price changes that are nation-wide in extent. But differ- 
ences in freight rates and transportation facilities, proximity to or 
remoteness from consuming territories, and other factors in the 
relationship of local to general distributive conditions, though affect- 
ing smaller areas, are equally potent and more stable in their in- 
fluence. The latter class of factors—those dividing the United 
States into zones according to the price paid farmers for a given 
product—presents a field that is only partially developed. 
Obviously farm price is a potent factor in adjustments of agricul- 
tural production. Just as climatic limitations on agriculture are 
shown on maps, so do farm prices, on sufficiently detailed maps, align 
themselves into zones, since price variations increase or decrease in 
well-defined directions. But this local price advantage or disad- 
vantage varies with each product, according to its characteristics and 
commercial movement; the extent and regularity of zones having 
equal price figures change with each crop, and so also do the direction 
and rate of increase. Thus, southern farmers, raismg varieties of 
wheat mostly softer than those of the North and West, receive on an 
average up to 60 cents per bushel more. The lowest wheat prices 
occur in regions marked by high prices of corn. Eastern farmers 
receive decidedly higher price averages for bulky commodities, such 
as hay, than for cereals. Much irregularity occurs in the prices of 
products wherein local consumption is important, such as corn or 
vegetables; greater stability, however, prevails in prices of wheat 
and oats. Within each State there is usually a variation of at least 
20 cents per bushel in corn prices, which is about the cost of sending 
corn from Chicago to Liverpool, under normal conditions. 
This publication deals with the wide variation in the producers’ 
price of wheat throughout the continental United States. State 
price averages usually embrace large areas and dissimilar conditions; 
therefore the county has been used as the smallest available working 
area wherein approximately similar conditions of supply and demand 
prevail. As the ratios of sectional prices fluctuate with unusual 
market conditions, an average for the five years, 1910-1914, was 
employed to differentiate normal from spasmodic differences. Basic 
figures for each of the five years were compiled from an annual 
total of about 30,000 township reports. The result constitutes, in 
effect, a survey of the geography of wheat prices and price factors. 
