Economic essays

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1753623200

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-136107

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Economic essays

Place of publication:: New York

Publisher:: Macmillan

Year of publication:: 1927

Scope:: viii, 368 S.; Ill., graph. Darst.

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: The holding movement in agriculture / Jesse E. Pope

Collection:: Economics Books

THE HOLDING MOVEMENT IN AGRICULTURE 265 gave him no choice in the matter and whose necessities corppelled him to market his grain each year for twenty-nine years imme- diately after the harvest was, if anything, more fortunate on the average, so far as net results are concerned, than his more pros- perous neighbor who was able to dispose of his grain at the end of the crop year.” wish now to call attention to the statistics on this question of whether or not it pays to hold for higher prices, as presented by the statistician of the Farm Bureau, and published in its officia organ. (American Farm Bureau Weekly News Letter, August 31, 1922.) These statistics cover practically the same period as my gures given above. The average difference between the highest and the lowest contract price for wheat over a ten-year period 1s given at 14.1 cents a bushel. As the cost of carriage is rom twelve to fourteen cents this difference is practically wiped out. The average gain from holding corn is given as 12.3 cents per bushel, which, owing to the heavy shrinkage of this grain in storage, 1s not sufficient to meet the carrying charges. The average gain from holding oats is given at 5.18 per bushel. This amount will just about meet the carrying charges. The difference in the case of rye is 8.6 cents; in the case of barley, 7.1 cents pe bushel. In both cases there is nothing left after carrying charges are met. It must be borne in mind that these differences repre- sent the extreme range of seasonal prices and can measure the farmer’s gain from holding only on the assumption that if he does not hold he will sell on the lowest market of the season and that if he does hold he will sell at the peak of the season’s prices. A very violent assumption, indeed. In this connection reference s made to “months in which prices are usually high.” It is rue that if there were such months the problem of hitting the igh prices of the season would be greatly simplified. The holder ‘ould merely wait for these months to come around and then sell. ut that there are no such months a study of the monthly flunctuations must convince the most sceptical, as is shown by the following table, which has been compiled from the statistics given above, and which shows for each of the years 1903-1912 the month of highest price for wheat, corn, and cotton respectively:

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