GEOGRAPHICAL PHASES OF FARM PRICES : CORN. 23 
URBAN MARKETS. 
Market receipts, shipments, and consumption. 
Urban markets have a stabilizing effect upon price differences. 
The corn entering into trade channels has been seen to constitute 
about 19.4 per cent of the total during 1911-1915. Like other ele- 
ments in corn distribution, this percentage varies from year to year. 
Practically all of such shipments move to urban markets, from which 
in turn approximately 3 per cent is shipped back to farms. 
Demands for urban consumption constitute approximately 15 per 
cent of the total production. Additional quantities, however, are 
concentrated in the markets for reshipment to domestic and foreign 
markets. Although urban markets draw only a fifth of the domestic 
crop, they influence to a considerable degree the general level of farm 
prices, for the prices obtaining there represent market conditions 
and the available returns for corn as a cash crop. 
Large markets, through their commercial organizations, credit 
and elevating facilities, tend to stabilize the geographic differences 
in farm prices. The comparative evenness of the price levels through- 
out the corn belt, wherein most of the great markets are situated, 
contrasts with the irregular price levels in areas where no points of 
large concentration appear. The difference between the prices at any 
two markets tends to be regulated in the long run by transportation 
expenses. The prices at markets in areas of insufficient production 
will generally be fixed by the prices at the nearest surplus point plus 
transportation expenses. Hence, market prices in cities tend to con- 
form to the general zones for producers' prices, as shown in Maps 1 
and 3. 
In such farm products as wheat and meat products, which are for 
human consumption, the relation of production to population domi- 
nates the trend of price levels. But large centers of population do 
not so directly dominate the direction of price increases in such 
products as corn, which are not destined chiefly for human food but 
more for consumption by live stock. 
Receipts, shipments, and apparent consumption of the largest mar- 
kets are shown in Table 4. Half a dozen primary markets located 
in the corn States receive the major part of the commercial corn; 
i. e., " shipments out of counties where grown." Of these, Chicago 
is by far the most important. Into the 14 cities listed as primary 
markets are shipped 264 million out of the 500 million bushels enter- 
ing into trade channels; the greater part of this comes from the 
North Central States, in which these markets are located. Although 
industrial uses, particularly important in such cities as Chicago, 
Indianapolis, St. Louis, and Peoria (111.), absorb large quantities, 
two-thirds of the total receipts in the primary markets are reshipped. 
Farm prices are naturally higher in regions near these primary mar- 
kets than in more remote regions. (See Maps 2 and 3.) 
