14 BULLETIN 594, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
EFFECT OF MARKETS ON LOCAL FARM PRICE VARIATIONS. 
Price elevations around wheat markets; influence of markets on farm price 
gradations*; large wheat consumption of grain centers. 
Wheat receipts, shipments, exports, and flour production at chief markets in 
relation to total commercial movement. 
Consideration of price zones in connection with the great wheat 
markets located on Map 3 will indicate the relationship between 
grain centers .and farm prices. In a report of the Industrial Com- 
mission 1 the grain territory tributary to the leading markets was 
mapped. In Map 4 this map is reproduced with the price zones of 
Map 3 superimposed. The effect on farm prices of proximity to the 
great wheat markets is apparent. On the north farm prices rise to 
a maximum around Minneapolis ; slightly farther south they gradu- 
ate upward toward Chicago and Milwaukee. Likewise, subordinate 
to the general price direction, higher levels obtain around Kansas 
City, St. Louis, San Francisco, and other important markets. Re- 
ports indicate that sections deficient in supply, east and south, draw 
the greater part of their wheat from these "primary markets" — 
the points in which wheat is concentrated in the first stages of its 
movement. Each of the markets has a territory from which it 
usually derives its wheat, freight rates being the determining 
factor, and farm prices tend to graduate in proportion thereto. 
A difference of a fraction of a cent in freight, elevating charges, 
etc, will alter the course of the wheat traffic. 
The great wheat markets are important, not only as commercial 
centers and points of wheat concentration, but also as eventually 
consuming a large part of the domestic wheat. A scor»e of the 
largest markets represent about one-fifth of the total consumption 
of the country. It is estimated that the metropolitan district of 
New York consumes 30 million bushels annually — equal to the entire 
production of the Middle Atlantic States or the average surplus of 
South Dakota. A few of the western primary markets are simply 
reshipping points, with little local consumption. 
In Table II (p. 15) data have been assembled explanatory of the 
importance of the markets on geographic phases of farm prices of 
wheat. It will be noted that 13 primary markets receive some 
481 million bushels of wheat and wheat flour. Comparing with the 
figures in Table I, the North Central States (in which these markets 
are located) grow 540 million bushels, with shipments out of counties 
where grown aggregating 337 million. Allowing for considerable 
duplication and inaccuracies in reports of receipts, the degree of 
concentration is evident. Exclusive of the Canadian shipments, 
Buffalo alone handles somewhat less than one-fifth of the total 
wheat production of the country and the major part of the wheat 
i Report of the Industrial Commission, Vol. VI. 
