THE AGRICULTURAL SITUATION IN CALIFORNIA 
AS PRESENTED BY 
Tae Starr oF THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE 
THE FRUIT SITUATION 
Much has been written and said about the post-war agricultural 
depression. Everybody agrees pretty well that there has been a 
depression in agriculture. The farmer’s dollar is not worth as much 
as it used to be. That is to say, the farmer cannot purchase as much 
of other commodities with the money he receives for a unit of his 
product today as he could before the war. His purchasing power is 
lower. 
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Average 3 7 
10 1. 
too = 
0 l 
30 
kd 
0 
o 
10-14 
Py 
0 
on 
on 
< w © © - oO ~ & © ww n © ~ 
= = = ~ a - 11 vl ~ aoa o & on o & 
o 
o & x a on @ a o o> a oO eo a a o o 
fig. 1.—Purchasing power of farm products in terms of non-agricultural 
commodities. 1910-1927. 
The changes in the purchasing power of farm products in terms 
of non-agricultural commodities are shown in figure 1. You will 
notice that the purchasing power began to decline in 1919, and 
continued downward through 1920, reaching a low point in 1921 and 
1922. Between 1922 and 1925 there was considerable recovery. The 
drop in 1926 was chiefly due to the low price of cotton; but now 
the curve is again back to the level it reached in 1925. 
In this eurve of purchasing power of farm products the changes 
are of course different from the experiences of many of our California 
erops. This eurve is largely made up of the prices of the great 
national crops such as wheat, corn, barley, potatoes, and the livestock 
products.