266 ECONOMIC ESSAYS IN HONOR OF JOHN BATES CLARK 
Monta oF HicHEST PRICE 
Commodity 
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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 
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