PRICES OF FARM PRODUCTS. 
17 
farming. If the new ratios continue, the most fundamental changes 
in types of farming will result. 
Table VIII. — Index numbers of prices and freight rates} 
Percentage 
that 1921 
price or 
charge is of 
five-year 
average. 
Weighted average prices paid to farmers for 31 farm products 
Wholesale prices " all commodities " 
Pennsylvania crude oil f. o. b. wells, per barrel 
Anthracite egg coal, f. o. b. N. Y. harbor, per ton 
Bessemer pig iron at Pittsburgh, per ton 
Lake copper, New York, per pound 
Freight rates on car loads per 100 pounds: 
Wheat, Kansas City to Galveston — 
Domestic 
Export ,. 
Corn, Chicago to New York- 
Domestic, reshipping 
Export, reshipping 
Dressed hogs, Chicago to New York 
Five-year 
average 
June, 1909- 
June, 1921. 
July, 1914. 
100 
100 
$1. 70 
$2. 625 
4.77 
10. 034 
15. 94 
24.71 
. 1453 
.1284 
.35.5 
.56 
.225 
.45 
.16 
.345 
.13 
.30 
.45 
.965 
106 
151 
154 
210 
155 
158 
200 
216 
231 
214 
1 Prices of copper and iron as reported by Iron Age. Other prices as reported by the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics. Freight rates obtained from the Interstate Commerce Commission. 
COMPARISONS OF FARM AND WHOLESALE PRICES. . 
When wholesale prices rise suddenly, retail prices tend to lag 
behind. Much of the goods in the hands of retailers is sold at or 
near the old price. . When prices fall rapidly retail prices again tend 
to follow slowly. Prices in small towns are likely to change more 
slowly than in cities where the stock is turned over more rapidly. 
Farmers sell on a quickly moving market and buy on a slow 
market, hence, when a sudden and violent drop in prices occurs, they 
sell at low prices long before any great reduction occurs in the price 
of things that they buy. 
Wholesale prices do not show the condition on farms. When 
prices suddenly fall, farm prices drop much more than wholesale 
prices and very much more than retail prices. For example, take 
the case when a product sells for $3 at wholesale and $2 on the farms. 
If the wholesale price drops 33 per cent, the farm price will drop 
nearly 50 per cent, or nearly to $1. The reason for this is that freight 
and many other costs of marketing are based on the physical quantity 
handled, not on price. 
Many apples, potatoes, and cabbages were thrown away during 
the past year because they would not pay the shipping costs. City 
wholesale prices rarely go below the costs of shipment and handling, 
and so do not show real conditions. 
Farm prices of products in the surplus States that are farthest from 
market are much lower than the prices for the United States as a 
whole, so that even the farm prices as given in this bulletin do not 
show the true status in States at the centers of production. For ex- 
ample, the United States farm price of corn in June was 92 per cent 
59143°— 21— Bull. 999 3 
