266 ECONOMIC ESSAYS IN HONOR OF JOHN BATES CLARK
Monta oF HicHEST PRICE
Commodity
Cotton
ly
ES ee
July
pes". ." . Dec.
.May
teed uly
Jan.
oes Mar
ee guly
me | caJune
The belief that prices immediately after harvest are unduly
depressed by the too rapid movement to market is strongly
intrenched in the Department of Agriculture, and it is not strange,
therefore, that the advocates of the holding movement have drawn
their inspiration chiefly from this Department. Among the
arguments put forth by the Department in advocating the estab-
lishment of licensed warehouses was the argument that such
warehouses would enable the farmer to store his products and
hold them for satisfactory prices. (Bulletin 277, p. 304.) The
Department also took the initiative in demanding that the
farmers be given more adequate credit facilities for holding and
it actively supported the Intermediate Credit Act.
Credit for holding is given much attention in the 1921 Year
Book of the Department and it will not be out of place to call
attention to some of the arguments therein set forth. After the
various needs of the wheat farmer for credit have been dis-
cussed, the statement is made that, “Credit is also needed in
case prices at threshing time are so low that holding the wheat
seems desirable” . . . “the large part of the wheat crop is
marketed in a few months after harvest which causes a rapid
decline in prices during the first few months of the new crop
year. This is one of the principal causes for the need of credit
for storing grain. Rapid release of a large volume of the crop,
however, may have the effect of congesting transportation and
storage facilities and depressing the price. By market credit, in
so far as the farmer is concerned, is meant chiefly the credit
which is needed after the grain has been harvested and which
will enable him to market his grain in an orderly manner.”
It will be interesting to review briefly the statistics presented
in this same volume in support of the views just presented. On
Corn
re
