GEOGRAPHICAL PHASES OP FARM PRICES: CORN". 7 



GENERAL FEATURES OF CORN DISTRIBUTION. 



The United States produces more than twice as much corn as the rest of 

 the world combined, but consumes practically its entire crop. Its share 

 of the foreign commerce in corn is relatively insignificant. 



Available foreign supplies are small, hence diminished consumption, and 

 not international supply, regulates prices in years of domestic shortage. 



AMERICAN CORN IN RELATION TO FOREIGN MARKETS. 



Except in years of domestic shortage, the general level of American 

 arm prices of corn is to some extent influenced by the prices pre- 

 ailing at importing European markets, though to a much less 



^^ SO?; 000,000 ^o's/zsis 





O/? /7S,OCX?, 000 SCS//SLS O/? /O/, 000, ooo ^as//£zs 



'i6. 1. — Corn : World production and commerce. Figures are averages for the five years 

 1909—1913, the latest available data showing usual conditions. They relate to all 

 countries for which data are available, and represent, substantially, world production 

 and exports. 



narked degree than in the case of wheat, because of the lesser im- 

 )ortance of corn exports. There exists, moreover, a degree of inter- 

 elation betAveen corn, wheat, and rye prices. 



The United States ordinarily produces over TO per cent of the 

 vorld's corn, more than twice the production of the rest of the world 

 ;ombined ; yet our exports seldom exceed 1| per cent of the domestic 

 )roduction. They averaged in 1909-1913 only about 15 per cent of 

 he world's exports. On the other hand, Argentina, whose average 

 :rop is about one-sixteenth that of the United States, contributes 

 learly three times as much as the latter to the world commerce in 

 ;orn — 42 per cent of the total exports, or over half of its harvest. 

 i*ractically all com exports go to Europe. 



Domestic consumption evidently absorbs practically the entire 

 larvest of the United States. But even in our internal commerce 



