¢ MARKETING BROOM CORN. 17 
season and no long broom corn with which to work it up (a condi- 
tion common with many in the spring of 1919), naturally there would 
| be an urgent demand for hurl, particularly where factories have large 
| contracts to fill, that would fale all their short brush and enough 
long to work it. Under such conditions it is likely that the factories 
having contracts to fill would place orders with dealers for this long 
/ corn. Hundreds of factories might place similar orders, with the re- 
| sult that the various buyers would go to a new market with orders 
for long broom corn covering a wide range of prices, but all with 
definite instruction to purchase cautiously and as cheaply as possible. 
Farmers, on the other hand, may have estimated the cost of rais- 
ing their brush and may be willing to sell only at a much higher 
figure. The spread in ideas of prices on an opening market is often 
as much as $100 per ton. Naturally such a spread must be nar- 
rowed in order to effect a mutual agreement on prices, and to do so 
various tactics are resorted to. 
_ Prior contracts between dealers and manufacturers sometimes 
determine opening prices, or dealers may have contracted from the 
growers in advance. Such contracting is purely speculative, the 
-dealer simply taking a chance on what future conditions will develop. 
. Large dealers study conditions closely by sending representatives 
| over the producing areas. The information obtained covers acreage 
planted compared with that of the previous year, year’s crop out- 
| look, approximate costs of production, and the like, and from this 
_ information they are able to arrive at a definite conclusion as to what. 
prices should move the crop and thus undertake to open up the 
market at that figure. 
Manufacturers in buying take into consideration the prevailing 
prices at which brooms can be sold and the future outlook generally. 
In almost every instance buyers, though possibly having some defi- 
nite information by which they are guided in making purchases of 
limited quantities, buy sparingly so that the quantities first bought 
by any one firm have little influence in establishing definite market 
| quotations. 
This unsettled state of affairs may continue for several days or 
more, no one apparently willing to back his judgment by heavy 
buying. In the meantime, however, a number of small] trades may. — 
have been made, principally to fill stress orders, or the local dealer 
| may attempt to Paice the situation by paying g vood prices for a few 
_ small crops in order.to stimulate a heavier movement of broom corn 
_ to market. 
The disposition of the farmers to hold or to sell at the prices offered 
determines whether the market opens brisk or dull. With a move- 
~ ment started, prices move up or down according to the number of 
