GEOGRAPHY OF WHEAT PRICES. 11 
flour, moving to New Orleans and Galveston for export. The export 
movement through the Gulf ports is increasing rapidly. 
East North Central States. — The figures for Indiana in the 
production column bring up production to about an equality with the 
requirements. Wisconsin grinds several times its production, the 
other States less than their production. 
West North Central States. — This is the great surplus wheat 
area, growing 51.8 per cent of the national wheat, or 416 out of 803 
million bushels, with only 12 per cent of the national population and 
17 per cent of the land area — or less than four times the requirements 
for food and seed. North Dakota (160 bushels per capita) and Kansas 
(58 bushels per capita) contribute about 60 per cent of the wheat grown 
in the seven States of this section, which supplies not only the greater 
part of the domestic deficiencies east of the Rockies, but also most of 
the export wheat. Deducting the Pacific wheat, which normally 
enters into a distinct trade westward, this division furnishes nearly 
80 per cent of the gross surplus of the United States. The one State 
of Minnesota grinds more than half of the wheat milled in this area — 
several times the State production. The aggregate figures suggest an 
export movement of wheat and wheat flour in about equal proportions. 
Mountain States. — The per capita production in these States is 
very high; only in Montana and Idaho, however, does the local 
production attain relative importance. The southern part of the 
division grows insufficient wheat for its needs. Population and 
wheat production are widely scattered, and the region is still in a 
developmental state, the census of 1910 reporting only 2 per cent of 
its area as being improved. Only a small proportion of the export 
wheat is milled, part moving westward and the major portion finding 
its way to markets east of the Rockies. 
Pacific States. — The bulk of the Pacific wheat production is 
concentrated in eastern Washington and northeastern Oregon, as 
will be seen from Map 2. California's production has declined to a 
fraction of the State's requirements. The surplus wheat from 
eastern Washington and Oregon, with some from adjoining Mountain 
States, supplies deficiencies in this section, the major part seeking a 
market in Europe and the Orient. Pacific mills grind less than half 
the local crop, surplus wheat being shipped, as a rule, unmilled. 
SECTIONAL PRICE RATIOS SHIFTING. 
Price maps based upon averages for five years, 1910-1914, to determine normal 
conditions. 
Geographic price differences change slowly with economic transformations. 
Spasmodic deviations from usual price relationships due to unusual local 
conditions. 
Application to specific purposes of the maps and local price align- 
ments to which attention is now addressed is in a measure contingent 
