GEOGRAPHY OF WHEAT PRICES. 13 
Notwithstanding the apparently bewildering lack of regularity in 
the individual price quotations, the application of statistical method 
to the great mass of numerical data which have been made the basis 
of the maps, and the use of a 5-cent unit to overcome minor differ- 
ences such as are due to grades, develop a sustained regularity in the 
geographic price comparisons. The regional differences in farm prices 
reflect current economic conditions; they are changing slowly with 
the development of the country ; subordinate to this general move- 
ment spasmodic deviations arise. 
S KjE^/? AV£/?/lG£ A9//-/S _ £?£TC7. /. /&/&„ , , 
CC.5U4/. WP/cr /?s47yO} (2/A/C/SCA4/. 1^/?/s177C>A/J 
MO/V7X/M 74 & A70A/7?4A/^ S/.^O 
WS1S/Y//V&7-0/V 73? waS/y/A/GZOAf #/. <?3 
Fig. 3.— Deviation from usual farm-price ratio, per bushel of wheat, Montana, Washington, and Kansas. 
DETAIL FARM PRICE MAP AND LOCAL PRICE CONDITIONS. 
Stability of farm prices where wheat traffic is in great volume, across Northern 
States. 
Mountainous regions and areas disadvantageously placed as to transportation 
facilities; irregularity of prices therein; surplus wheat areas show lowest 
prices; deficient areas highest prices. 
Map 3 is designed to show local variations in the general price zones 
through the use of a 5-cent unit. 
Previous paragraphs have treated of the general direction of the 
price progressions. An examination of the price maps will disclose 
many small areas in which farm prices are higher or lower than 
in the surrounding territory. Greatest stability and slowest rate of 
increase attend the direction wherein grain traffic is in largest vol- 
ume — across the Mississippi, through Illinois and Ohio, toward the 
North Atlantic ports. Similarly, in the Pacific northwest, price levels 
rise steadily toward the seaboard. On the other hand, prices paid to 
farmers reach higher and more irregular levels within the arid interior 
and southwest, sections deficient in wheat production, with scanty 
population, having no points of large concentration, and drawing 
wheat in relatively small quantities. High figures usually obtain in 
regions of little or no wheat production. It will be noted that in 
importing areas — as in the Appalachian region — not well served by 
transportation facilities, prices are high and irregular. Surplus areas 
not favorably situated as to transportation and markets show lowest 
farm prices, notwithstanding proximity to areas of higher prices, as 
will be seen in parts of Idaho and Colorado. 
