GEOGRAPHICAL PHASES OF FARM PRICES: CORN. 3 



The county has been used as the basis of measurement in this 

 bulletin. It represents the smallest unit of area for which farm 

 prices are to be had. The base figures were compiled from the 

 annual reports of about 30,000 township reporters of the Bureau of 

 Crop Estimates for December 1, 1910-1914, inclusive. Five-year 

 averages were used instead of quotations for a single year, in order 

 to represent more nearly normal rather than occasional conditions. 



A tabular presentation of the prices of com, by States and coun- 

 ties, is given in the Appendix (p. 45). Geographic variation of 

 prices is depicted by means of maps and graphs. 



SURVEY OF BROAD REGIONAL DIFFERENCES IN CORN PRICES. 



Low prices prevail throughout the great corn States, from Ohio to Ne- 

 braska ; the minimum price paid to producers of corn appears at the 

 northwestern end of this section. 



This area of lowest price forms a price depression ; prices attain con- 

 stantly higher levels toward all points of the compass, at varying 

 degrees of increase. 



Maximum prices are paid usually to growers in producing areas farthest 

 from the corn belt — in the Southwest and Southeast. 



Although the farm prices of corn will be seen to increase or de- 

 crease in definable directions, this movement is somewhat irregular. 

 On Map 1 a 10-cent price unit has been used to overcome minor local 

 deviations and show more clearly the general trend of the price 

 levels. Blank spaces on this map indicate areas of little or no corn 

 production, according to the 1910 census. 



It will be observed that the difference in farm prices between the 

 highest and lowest region exceeds 60 cents per bushel, or a variation 

 of nearly 150 per cent. Under usual conditions the isotimes, or de- 

 grees of sectional price difference, as they are delimited on the map, 

 prevail without regard to oscillations in the general price level of 

 corn. 



The lowest prices paid to corn growers occur within the areas of 

 densest production — from western Ohio, across the corn belt, through 

 the greater part of Nebraska. This zone of low prices includes sub- 

 stantially the heaviest producing sections of all the great corn States. 

 It embraces the greatest agricultural region within the United States, 

 with highest land values, highest aggregate value of all crops and 

 live stock produced. The minimum price of 45 cents a bushel appears 

 at its northwestern corner, within an irregular square formed by 

 adjacent portions of Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Minnesota. 



In this region of minimum farmers.' price occurs the lowest price 

 depression, away from which prices graduate upward in every direc- 

 tion, attaining, as a rule, steadily higher levels toward all points of 

 the compass. The maximum prices prevail in the arid Southwest, 



