PRICES OF FARM PRODUCTS. 
11 
that can not be afforded in the usual amount, so that the meat and 
milk prices are at such times subject to attack, while in fact they are 
relatively low. 
Table VI. — Wages and wholesale prices. 
Year. 
Civil War, 1856- 
1860=100.1 
Year. 
World War, 1910- 
1914= 100. 2 
Wholesale 
prices, all 
com- 
modities. 
Wages . 
Wholesale 
prices, all 
com- 
modities. 
Wages. 
1860 
95 
95 
112 
141 
181 
205 
181 
163 
152 
145 
135 
129 
132 
130 
126 
121 
112 
105 
96 
101 
102 
104 
111 
126 
144 
153 
159 
160 
163 
163 
165 
167 
168 
163 
160 
154 
146 
144 
1914 
102 
102 
126 
178 
200 
219 
250 
105 
106 
114 
131 
166 
189 
240 
1861 
1915 
1862 
1916 
1863 
1917 
1864 
1918 
1 865 
1919 
1866 
1920 
1867, 
1868 
1869 
1870 
1871 
1872 
1873 
1874 
1875. . 
1876 
1877 
1878 
1 Wholesale prices, wages, and transportation. Report by Mr. Aldrich, from the Com- 
mittee on Finance Mar. 3, 1893. Senate Report No. 1394, Fifty-second Congress, second 
session, Part I, pr». 13 and 91. 
2 Monthly Labor Review, Vol. XII, No. 2, pp. 73-74, February, 1921. 
When the five-year average prices before the war are called 100, the 
general price level in 1917, as indicated by the index number for 
wholesale prices, was 178. The weighted average price of 31 farm 
products was 179. Wages lagged behind prices and stood at 131. 
The index number of the farm price of corn was 218; wheat, 227; rye, 
216; buckwheat, 210; beans, 324; cabbage, 220; onions, 236; potatoes, 
274. All these were very high. But the index number of butter was 
only 141; eggs, 160; chickens, 146; beef cattle, 157; hogs, 188. All 
these except hogs were very low in price and hogs were low in com- 
parison with corn. Hogs had just passed through a period of low 
prices and consequently were short in supply. 
These striking differences in prices were largely owing to shifts made 
in food habits because wages had not risen as rapidly as the general 
price level. The short crop in 1916 made the situation worse. 
The same process occurred during the Civil War. The animal 
units per 100 persons decreased from 89 in 1860 to 67 in 1870. (See 
Table VII.) During the World War wages rose more promptly than 
they did during the Civil War period. The number of animals has 
nearly kept up with population. From 1910 to 1920 the animal units 
per 100 persons decreased from 69 to 65. 
When the general price level falls wages again lag behind and there 
is an increased demand for animal foods provided there is not too 
