MARKETING OF BERMUDA ONIONS 31 
three times as great as in the previous year. Prices at shipping points 
were equally variable. 
The extreme variation in market prices renders the growing of 
Bermuda onions unusually speculative. Costs per acre are very 
heavy because of irrigation and hand labor required. 6 
These heavy costs may be provided for throughout the year on the 
chance that receipts will be sufficient in the spring to reimburse the 
unusually high expense. In years like 1918 and 1921, all but a few 
growers suffered heavy losses. In seasons like those of 1917, 1919, 
and 1922, as the expenses are very little more, a large share of the 
gross receipts for onions represents net profit. 
Prices are usually much higher in the early part of the season than 
later. There is no typical seasonal variation. The rate of decline is 
variable, and in two of the years under discussion growers received 
more for shipments made in the latter part of May than for those 
made earlier in the season. 
PRICES IN 1916 
Prices in 1916 were comparatively stable. Heavy shipments the 
latter part of March, warm weather, and a heavy volume of unab- 
sorbed old stock started a decline which threatened to carry the 
price down to unusually low levels. A meeting of all growers and 
shippers was called at Laredo on April 6 for the purpose of limiting 
shipments to such quantities as could be absorbed in the consuming 
centers and of storing what was necessary near shipping points. A 
trade paper 7 reported that the agreement to curtail shipments had 
resulted in an increase of prices at shipping point from $1 to $1.15 on 
Yellow Bermudas and from $1 to $1.25 on Crystal Wax. A part of 
this increase was due to rains which shut off digging and caused a 
division of the main movement into three successive peaks. 
The effect of these various factors was to stabilize prices between 
about $1.50 and $1.75 in the cities and approximately $1.25 at the 
shipping point, at which prices most of the crop moved into con- 
sumption. 
Most of the crop was bought on contract by dealers some time 
before harvesting began. A large part of the crop was sold f. o. b. 
shipping point by both dealers and growers. 
PRICES IN 1917 
The 1917 season presents the anomaly of the largest crop of Ber- 
muda onions of the past eight years, 8 marketed at prices next to the 
highest of the period. (See fig. 9.) This apparent reversal of the 
usual situation illustrates the complex forces determining price. The 
principal optimistic factor seems to have been the small carry over 
of old onions, resulting from the previous year's short northern crop. 
The Texas crop started to move unusually early and found the 
market nearly bare of old stock, and there was little competition 
from other new stock until much of the Texas crop had been sold. 
The general impression early in the season that cold weather would 
reduce the yield materially was another factor favorable to higher 
prices. The unusually heavy and long-continued movement from 
6 Cost of production is estimated at $125 to $139 per acre in 1915 in Bulletin No. 46 of the Texas Depart- 
ment of Agriculture. 
< New York Packer, Apr. 22, 1916, p. 11. 
8 Texas 5,892 cars, California 494 cars, total 6,386 cars. 
