UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
ft BULLETIN No. 696 
Contribution from the Bureau of Crop Estimates 
LEON M, ESTABROOK, Chief 
Washington, D. C. 
September 26, 1918 
GEOGRAPHICAL PHASES OF FARM PRICES: CORN, 
By L. B. Zapoleon, 
Division of Crop Records. 
CONTENTS. 
Scope of subject outlined * 1 
Data employed and method of treatment 2 
Survey of broad regional differences in corn 
prices 3 
Price levels and commercial movement of 
corn 4 
Predominant trade routes and price levels, 
and local variation 6 
General features of corn distribution 7 
Production, consumption, and commerce, 
by States and sections 12 
Detail price map and local price factors 18 
Page. 
City and farm consumption contrasted 19 
Farm consumption 19 
Urban markets 23 
Freight rates 24 
Costs of production and farm prices, geo- 
graphic differences 25 
Characteristics of price zones 30 
Retrospective view of prices and price fac- 
tors, 1871 to 1915 31 
Summary 42 
Appendix: Average farm prices of corn, by 
counties, 1910-1914 45 
SCOPE OF SUBJECT OUTLINED. 
Yields to the acre are a measure of physical limitations, and producers' 
prices reflect commercial factors. 
Analysis of extreme sectional differences in prices paid to farmers dis- 
closes zones of uniformly high or low prices, between which prices 
graduate. This price advantage or disadvantage varies with each 
product. 
The geography of farm prices constitutes a controlling element in local 
types of agriculture. 
In the foreground of the present-day problems are those having 
to do with the prices of food products. The importance of geo- 
graphic factors in producers' and consumers' prices is not apparent 
in the middle ground represented by average prices and price levels, 
for great differences usually prevail in the prices of a specific 
product in various sections of the country. The trend of this local 
variation differs for each commodity. The lowest wheat prices, 
55985 c —18— Bull, 696 1 
