GEOGRAPHICAL PHASES OP FARM PRICES: CORN. 25 



Thus forty times the distance takes less than four times the ten-mile 

 rate. The through rates from a point in the corn belt apply to all 

 New England destinations ; the rate to Baltimore applies equally to 

 Eichmond and Newport News. 



* Moreover, the sum of a series of local rates covering a given route 

 is usually higher than the through rate over the same route. Also, 

 export grain usually moves to the seaboard at lower rates than does 

 grain for domestic use. A higher rate applies to grain products 

 than to grain. Lower rates usually prevail at points possessing 

 water transportation, which serves as a potential if not an actual 

 competitive factor. 



The influence of markets upon farm prices, as well as the tendency 

 to concentrate the commercial corn in the large commercial centers, 

 is affected by freight rates. 



By means of the milling-in-transit rate, corn may be stopped 

 en route, milled, cleaned, or dried, and the product moved on again 

 at the original rate charged for a through corn shipment, instead of 

 taking the local rate to the milling point and the higher rate for 

 grain products to eventual destination. On some lines the rate for 

 grain products is applied to such traffic. 



It may be noted that the tendency to manufacture cereal products 

 near sources of supply and lessen transportation costs is somewhat 

 offset by this higher rate for grain products as well as by reshipping 

 and milling-in-transit rates. 



Rates on com from the North Central States to the Southeast are 

 considerably higher than to New England or eastern points; before 

 the war they were higher even than transportation costs from points 

 in the corn belt to British markets. This fact is suggestive when 

 considered in connection with the higher prices paid to corn growers 

 in the Southeast, where production is less than consumption. 



The difference in freight rates between carload and less-than- 

 carload lots represents still another factor in the price zones, affect- 

 ing especially sections in which corn traffic is small. In the territory- 

 east of the Mississippi and south of the Potomac and Ohio Elvers 

 the same rate applies to carload and less-than-carload lots of corn. 



COSTS OF PRODUCTION AND FARM PRICES, GEOGRAPHIC 

 DIFFERENCES. 



An analysis of the practical bearing of varying price levels on 

 local types of agriculture is incomplete without consideration of cost 

 to production. Two elements are involved here : (1) The cost of pro- 

 ducing crops upon an acreage basis, and (2) the number of bushels 

 jjroduced to the acre. 



55985°— 18— Bull. 696 4 



