GEOGRAPHY OF WHEAT PRICES. 19 
point. Reference to the maps will indicate the effect of this rate, 
as well as of the low rates via the Great Lakes, in the equality of farm 
prices near Chicago with those farther east and much nearer the 
seaports. 
Still another complication is the difference in freight rates between 
carload and less-than-carload lots, which would particularly affect 
regions in which wheat traffic is small. 
OTHER PRICE FACTORS. 
Distinct use made of certain varieties of wheat, with individual price conditions. 
Local value of mill by-products; discriminatory effect of tariffs and freights 
on flour production. 
Another factor affecting farm price is the demand for one kind of 
wheat compared with the demand for another kind. Thus durum or 
macaroni wheat meets a distinct demand in export and domestic 
trade; the hard spring and winter wheat is highly esteemed for 
bread making, and the softer wheats are considered better adapted 
for use in pastries. A general practice exists of bringing up the 
gluten content of the softer wheats by an admixture of the harder 
varieties. For example, notwithstanding the general easterly and 
southerly movement of hard Kansas wheat, some of it is shipped 
westward to Denver, where it is blended with the softer irrigated 
wheats. 
The economic advantages of milling wheat close to the sources of 
raw material are offset in part by higher freights on flour, in part by 
local values of mill by-products, and by characteristics of the re- 
shipping and milling-in-transit freight rates. Then, too, foreign 
tariffs frequently discriminate against flour imports, up to the point 
of absolute prohibition. It is usually considered that, on an average, 
4£ bushels of No. 2 hard wheat produce one barrel of flour (196 
pounds) and 70 pounds of feed, with 4 pounds of loss. 
In concluding it may be added that, manifestly, from the very 
nature of the case, only the broad general conditions applying to the 
regional price differences can be entered into here. No single set of 
conditions alone determines a price, but each more or less determin- 
able factor is influenced by other elements. Hence the treatment of 
causes has been intended as merely indicative and concerned primarily 
with the mention of some of the more noteworthy ones. In a publi- 
cation of this character it has seemed best merely to set forth facts 
and conditions, with the avoidance, so far as possible, of discussions 
of economic theory. 
SUMMARY: PRICE VARIATIONS AND ATTENDANT CONDITIONS. 
In the selection of crops for which climate and soil are fitted, 
geographic differences in producers' prices constitute a potent factor. 
Isothermal lines indicate zones of like temperature; in a similar 
manner farm prices group themselves geographically into zones, 
