22 BULLETIN" 696, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
In the surplus-producing North Central States, costs of hauling 
will be observed to be lower than elsewhere and fairly uniform over 
large areas. The Southern and Western States are marked by long 
hauls and high hauling costs, as well as great irregularity in the 
price areas. Irregular price levels may be observed (Map 3) through- 
out mountain sections. Accessibility to markets, the existence or 
absence of good roads or of water transportation, is often reflected 
in material price variations within small areas. Thus, in a report of 
the Waterways Commission it is shown that farmers along naviga- 
ble rivers in Tennessee receive several cents per bushel more for their 
corn than those in surrounding regions. In the more remote farms 
the cost of hauling corn to or from shipping points appears to be 
almost prohibitive. Such isolated areas have an almost entirely 
local market. In the western irrigated sections — distant from mar- 
kets — the price of alfalfa hay has been known to drop from around 
$20 per ton in a year of local shortage to below $5 in a year of local 
surplus. 
To the causes making for price irregularity because of farm con- 
ditions may be added the preference for ear corn, the trade for which 
is local, and the added expense of shelling corn to lessen freight 
charges. 
Local conditions are thus seen to depress farm prices of corn in 
regions of surplus production, influences of the character mentioned 
often causing deviations from the general geographic arrangement 
of prices. But in areas of insufficient production the described 
drawbacks incident to bringing in corn tend to increase the prices 
obtained by farmers. Map 2, showing density of production, should 
be compared with Map 3, which shows prices. The relationship is 
apparent, for prices drop wherever production is shown to be 
denser. In the regions of deficient production such areas as show 
notably heavy corn crops form price depressions. For instance, in 
Maryland, Delaware, and southeastern Pennsylvania production is 
greater and corn prices are lower than in surrounding territories; 
this contrasts with the tendency of corn prices to increase east and 
southward. In central Tennessee, also, lower prices and greater 
production will be noted than in the southwestern part of the State. 
