264 ECONOMIC ESSAYS IN HONOR OF JOHN BATES CLARK 
THE NuMBER oF MonTHS THE FARMER, BY Horping His Crop, CouLD 
HAVE Sop AT A GAIN OR Loss, For EACH SPECIFIED YEAR AND FOR 
THE TEN YEAR AVERAGE 
WHEAT Corn | OATs CorToN 
1903-04 
1904-05 
1905-06 
1306-07 
1907-08 
1908-09 
1909-10 
1910-11 
1911-12 
1912-13 
1913-14 
Ten Year Average 
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6.15 
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9 
7 
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2 
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5 
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23 
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231 
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23. 
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5 
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“e 
July, and August, the average price of wheat was 4.25 cents a 
bushel higher in the case of No. 1 northern and 4.23 cents higher 
in the case of No. 2 northern than during the months of heavy 
movement to market, i.e., September, October, November, and 
December. 
The Chamber estimates the average carrying charges, includ- 
ing interest, to be not less than nine cents per bushel. “And, if 
these be taken into account,” says the Chamber, “the farmer who 
held his wheat till the period of light movement to market would 
have lost in twenty years out of the twenty-nine in the case of 
No. 1 northern, and in eighteen years out of the twenty-nine in 
the case of No. 2 northern. Or, to state it another way, the 
average advance in the price of wheat would not have compen- 
sated the prosperous farmer for the cost of carrying for the eight 
months; or, for example, from the end of October until the end 
of the following June. And, further, by holding his grain for 
the twenty-nine years mentioned, and selling the same toward 
the end of the crop year at the period of the lightest crop move- 
ment, it is manifest that the additional price received, on the 
average, would not cover the cost of carrying. . . . In other words, 
it appears that the northwestern wheat producer, whose creditors