108 



CIRCULAR 10 0, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Table 45.- — Prices of tobacco per 100 poxmds received by the association and 



auction-floor prices 



Area and system 



1922 crop 



1923 crop 



1924 crop 



1925 crop 



Sun-cured: 



Association sales 



Dollars 

 12.33 

 14.27 



Dollars 

 12.83 

 13.22 



Dollars 

 14.02 

 14 63 



Dollars 

 16.32 

 16.39 







Difference . . . ... 



-1.94 



-.39 



-.61 



-.07 







Dark-fired: 



17. 29 

 19.77 



18.61 

 18.09 



19.02 

 19.43 



16.65 





16.24 









-2.48 



.52 



-.41 



.41 







Old belt: 



26.25 

 30.25 



20.88 

 21.49 



23.71 

 21.69 



22.90 





17.33 









-4.00 



-.61 



2.02 



5.57 







Eastern Carolina (new belt): 



22.89 

 29.70 



21.33 

 24.00 



25.01 

 25.50 



22.42 





25.40 









-6.81 



-2.67 



-.49 



-2.98 







South Carolina: 



19.24 

 23.00 



22.06 

 19.00 



20.48 

 17.00 



20.52 





16.70 







Difference .. . .- . 



-3.76 



3.08 



3.48 



3.82 







Sun-cured and dark-fired auction-floor prices from Virginia Farm Statistics, 1926 (8, p. 82); auction-floor 

 prices for other areas from U. S. Department of Agriculture Yearbook 1923 (9, p. 867) and similar tables in 

 later yearbooks. 



The importance of this comparison should not be exaggerated 

 because it is impossible with the information available to ascertain 

 to what extent the quality of tobacco sold under the two systems is 

 comparable. There is good reason to believe that the tobacco sold 

 by the association, especially during the last three years, was inferior 

 in quality to that sold under the auction-floor system, but there is no 

 means of ascertaining to what extent the qualities differed under the 

 two systems. The gross average prices obtained by the association 

 for the tobacco sold in the old-belt and dark-fired pools for 1925 

 are of little value for comparative purposes, as only a small pro- 

 portion of the tobacco in these pools had been sold on May 31, 1926. 



Table 46 gives, by pools and years, comparisons between the aver- 

 age auction-floor prices and the average bankers' valuation prices, 

 and gives comparisons between the average auction-floor prices and 

 the average prices remitted by the association to its members up to 

 the time of the receivership. 



In only three instances did the bankers' valuation prices exceed 

 the auction-floor prices — in the South Carolina pool in 1924 and 

 in the sun-cured and South Carolina pools in 1925. The differences 

 for the four crops ranged from an average of 94 cents for the sun- 

 cured pool to an average of $5.80 in the eastern Carolina pool, and 

 with an unweighted average auction-floor margin of $2.74 for all 

 pools for all years. For most pools the auction-floor margin tended 

 to decrease from 1922 to 1925. This decrease was due to an increas- 

 ing bankers' valuation price and a decreasing auction-floor price 

 for some pools, 



