UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
BULLETIN No. 755 { 
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Contribution from the Bureau of Crop Estimates 
LEON M. ESTABROOK, Chief 
1\&'' < FWU 
Washington, D. C. 
March 19, 1919 
GEOGRAPHICAL PHASES OF FARM PRICES: 
OATS. 
By L. B. Z apol e o n, formerly of the Division of Crop Records. 
CONTENTS. 
Page. 
Price maps 2 
Survey of regional differences in farm prices 
' of oats , 2 
Price levels and trade routes 2 
Disposition of United States oat crop 4 
Local variation in uses of oats 5 
Production, consumption, and marketings, 
by States and sections 6 
Local price factors 6 
Isolated areas 8 
Local variations in demand 8 
Costs of hauling to shipping points 9 
Urban markets 10 
Page. 
Receipts, shipments, and consumption of 
chief markets 10 
Price zones flexible 11 
Sectional price ratios changing with economic 
transformations 11 
Retrospective view, 1871 to 1915 11 
Trend of yields to the acre 13 
Trend of values to the acre lc 
Sectional changes in production of oats 13 
Price vs. cost of production 13 
Appendix: Average farm prices of oats, by 
counties, 1910-1914 21 
INTRODUCTION. 
The price a farmer gets for his products yaries greatly according 
to the section of the country in which he is situated. For some 
crops — the staples even — twice as high a price level frequently pre- 
vails in one part of the United States as in another. 
The charting of geographic variations in farm or producers' prices 
has possibilities of practical usefulness. General price levels of most 
agricultural products fluctuate constantly, of course ; but as between 
two sections the difference in the farmers' price of a product remains 
approximately the same. This price advantage or disadvantage 
differs with each product, so that a region of high prices for one may 
have low prices for another. 
In this bulletin a survey is made of the sectional differences 
throughout the United States in the producers' prices of oats. Some 
consideration is also given to the influence of producing areas, 
trade routes and consuming centers upon such variations, and to 
local factors which qualify price advantage — factors such as relative 
yields in bushels to the acre and costs of production. 
89781°— 19— Bull. 755 1 
