MARKETING BROOM CORN". 17 



season and no long broom corn with which to work it up (a condi- 

 tion common with many in the spring of 1919), naturally there would 

 be an urgent demand for hurl, particularly where factories have large 

 contracts to fill, that would utilize all their short brush and enough 

 long to work it. Under such conditions it is likely that the factories 

 having contracts to fill would place orders with dealers for this long 

 corn. Hundreds of factories might place similar orders, with the re- 

 sult that the various buyers would go to a new market with orders 

 for long broom corn covering a wide range of prices, but all with 

 definite instruction to purchase cautiously and as cheaply as possible. 



Farmers, on the other hand, may have estimated the cost of rais- 

 ing their brush and may be willing to sell only at a much higher 

 figure. The spread in ideas of prices on an opening market is often 

 as much as $100 per ton. Naturally such a spread must be nar- 

 rowed in order to effect a mutual agreement on prices, and to do so 

 various tactics are resorted to. 



Prior contracts between dealers and manufacturers sometimes 

 determine opening prices, or dealers may have contracted from the 

 growers in advance. Such contracting is purely speculative, the 

 dealer simply taking a chance on what future conditions will develop. 



Large dealers study conditions closely by sending representatives 

 over the producing areas. The information obtained covers acreage 

 planted compared with that of the previous year, year's crop out- 

 look, approximate costs of production, and the like, and from this 

 information they are able to arrive at a definite conclusion as to what 

 prices should move the crop and thus undertake to open up the 

 market at that figure. 



Manufacturers in buying take into consideration the prevailing 

 prices at which brooms can be sold and the future outlook generally. 

 In almost every instance buyers, though possibly having some defi- 

 nite information by which they are guided in making purchases of 

 limited quantities, buy sparingly so that the quantities first bought 

 by any one firm have little influence in establishing definite market 

 quotations. 



This unsettled state of affairs may continue for several days or 

 more, no one apparently willing to back his judgment by heavy 

 buying. In the meantime, however, a number of small trades may 

 have been made, principally to fill stress orders, or the local dealer 

 may attempt to relieve the situation by paying good prices for a few 

 small crops in order to stimulate a heavier movement of broom corn 

 to market. 



The disposition of the farmers to hold or to sell at the prices offered 

 determines whether the market opens brisk or dull. With a move- 

 ment started, prices move up or down according to the number of 



