TABLE II

PRODUCTION, QUANTITY MARKETED AND FARM VALUE OF LEADING GRAIN CROPS (000 Omitted)

1 U. S. Department of Agriculture Year Book (1900 to 1921); Weather, Crops and Markets, Dec. 23, 1922. Figures adjusted to census basis. 1921.

converted into live stock or beef, mutton and pork products.* Yet, there are thousands of local grain elevators and warehouses which handle corn, for the volume which now reaches the grain trade exceeds that of wheat.

As is graphically shown in Map No. V, though appreciable quantities of corn are grown throughout the southern states and in various regions throughout the country, there is really but one great American corn belt, and it extends through the Ohio and Mississippi River Valley from Ohio to Northern Texas. The cornfields of Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas, and Texas provide the corn market with most of its annual supply and feed vast numbers of cattle, sheep and hogs. Largely increased corn crops have also in recent years been grown in Minnesota and South Dakota.

Distribution of Local Trade in Oats.-The oats crop of the United States (see Table II), is also larger than that of any foreign country in the world. So large, however, are the crops of Russia, Germany, Canada, France, Austria-Hungary, Great Britain, Argentina and other countries, that the oats fields of the United States before the War produced but 20 to 30 per cent of the world's crop. The high point was reached in 1915.* The international trade in both oats and corn is small as compared with that of wheat, the exports of American oats being almost negligible except during the war period and those of corn in recent years comprising from 12 to 42 per cent of the annual crop. As in the case of corn, moreover, much the larger share of the oats crop of the United States is retained for local consumption and does not enter the country's grain trade. During the decade ending in 1914 somewhat less than 30 per cent of the annual oats crop was shipped out of the county in which it was grown. To collect 300,000,000 bushels of oats annually from the thousands of farmers who sell a portion of their crop,

3 N. C. Murray, "Distribution of Feed Crops," Farmers Bulletin No. 629, p. 8.

In 1921 the United States produced 36.6 per cent of the world's crop.

however, requires a large number of country grain elevators and warehouses. Many of those located in Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri, regularly handle oats as well as other grains. All the states of the corn belt are heavy producers of oats, but the oats crop is more widely scattered, for oats thrives in northern states such as Wisconsin, Michigan and in the northern-most states of the spring wheat belt where the early frosts have retarded the rapid introduction of corn.

Distribution of Local Trade in Barley.-The barley crop of the United States is decidedly smaller than that of wheat, corn or oats (see Table II). The greatest barley-producing country during the pre-war period was Russia, where over 574,000,000 bushels were grown in 1913 as compared with 178,189,000 bushels in the United States. From 45 per cent to over 57 per cent annually of the American crop reaches the grain market, principally in California, North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota, Kansas and Wisconsin. The crops of other minor grains-rye, buckwheat and flaxseed-are included in Table II.

TRANSFER OF GRAIN FROM GROWER TO COUNTRY ELEVATOR

OF WAREHOUSE

Length and Cost of Local Haul.-Though the number of country elevators and warehouses at which the grain growers sell their crops is increasing, and their location at local shipping points is arranged with reference to the proximity of the grain fields as well as with reference to railroad connections, much grain requires long and expensive country hauls. The average distance from the wheat fields of the United States to the local markets in which it is sold was in 1906 reported to be 9.4 miles, and to vary from 4 to 22 miles in different states; and corn was in that year hauled by the growers to the country elevator, an

"Costs of Hauling Crops from Farms to Shipping Points," U. S. Bureau of Statistics (Department of Agriculture), Bulletin No. 49.

average distance of 7.4 miles in the United States as a whole and from 3.2 to 29.4 miles in various states. The average distance from all farms producing crops of every kind to the local markets in 1915 was reported to have been 6.5 miles, and from the more remote farms 8.7 miles.

The average cost of transporting grain to the local markets was in 1906 reported to be 9 cents per 100 pounds in the case of wheat and 7 cents in the case of corn. Inasmuch as railwaylake rates on wheat from Chicago to New York varied from 5.02 to 7.01 cents per bushel during the years 1900 to 1913, and all-rail rates ranged from 9.60 to 11.70 cents, it is evident that the country haul, although short as compared with the railroad haul to or from the central grain markets, is an important consideration in the local grain trade. The Bureau of Statistics of the Department of Agriculture estimated that the cost of hauling the 1905-1906 crop of corn, wheat, oats, barley and flaxseed from the farms to local shipping points aggregated over $62,000,000. The cost of hauling corn was estimated to comprise 9.6 per cent, wheat 7.2 per cent, oats 7.7 per cent, barley 8.3 per cent, and flaxseed 5.3 per cent of the farm value of the loads hauled.

Methods of Local Hauling.-Grain is conveyed to local shipping points by various methods. Most of it is hauled by the growers themselves, and is regarded as a secondary source of employment for the equipment and drivers whose chief employment is on the farms. Each grower may perform his hauling individually, or neighboring growers may perform it coöperatively. Some grain hauling, however, is performed by hired "freighters," for in some parts of the Mississippi Valley and especially in the Pacific Slope and Rocky Mountain grain belts, the distances to local shipping points are so long that it is unprofitable for the growers to maintain sufficient equipment and drivers to perform all the necessary hauling. The professional freighters haul grain and other farm produce at regular tariffs and on the return trip frequently transport farm machin

6 U. S. Bureau of Crop Statistics, The Agricultural Outlook, Apr. 23, 1915, and Farmers' Bulletin No. 672, pp. 11-14.