TABLE XXXVII. Relation of the Size of United States Crops to Prices* *G. F. Warren and F. A. Pearson, "Inter-relationships of Supply and Price," Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin 466, Sept. 1927.
in -fig. 17 and Table XXXVII. A crop 2o% below normal ordinarily sells for about 42% above the normal price on Iowa farms, but brings only is% above the normal price in Liverpool. A crop 2o% above normal ordinarily sells for about 25% below normal prices in Iowa, but prices in Liverpool are depressed only about 1%. Retail prices of corn meal are only slightly affected by the size of the corn crop. A crop of potatoes 2o% above nor mal depresses the Minnesota farm price 28%, but reduces the Rhode Island farm price only 15%. The smaller reduction in price in Rhode Island is because farmers there are so near the consumers that the farm price is more like a retail price. Most of the American farm products are so far from consumers, that prices fluctuate with extreme violence. Prices to European farm ers usually fluctuate less, not only because farmers are nearer the consumers, but because so large a part of the product is consumed on the farms. Commercial production far from consumers results in violent price fluctuations. In agriculture, this problem is com parable with that of unemployment in cities.
For most industrial products, a year of high prices is one of high production, because it takes such a short time to produce goods. In agriculture, a much longer time is required to produce. High prices result in increased production, but it is from one to many years before the increased product appears on the market. A retail price of round steak, 2o% above normal, results in re ceipts of cattle at Chicago 32% above normal 8 years later. When prices are low, animals are thrown on the market and production is checked, but it is some years before the shortage occurs. The periods of high prices of hogs are 5-8 years apart ; for sheep, years; for beef cattle, about 16 years; for horses, 25 years (figs. 18, 19, 20 and 21).
For the five years before the World War, the average cost of distributing the beef from a i,000lb. steer was $49. Following the World War, it was over twice as much. In each case, the farmer received the balance. The cost of distributing foods is primarily city wages (fig. 22). When financial inflation occurs, wages and the cost of distribution are low, relative to retail prices, and farm prices are very high. When financial deflation occurs, wages and the cost of distribution remain high and farm prices are low compared with retail prices (fig. 23). See UNITED STATES, History, 1929-35. (G. F. W.; F. A. PE.) Agricultural Chemistry.—Agricultural chemical investiga tions in the United States are conducted in the various bureaux of the Federal Department of Agriculture, in the agricultural experiment stations of the States, in many universities and re search institutions and in the laboratories of various industrial establishments.
The chemical control of commercial fertilizers and the study of fertilizer action upon the growth of crops engaged at first almost the exclusive attention of agricultural chemists in the United States. The study of cattle feeds for regulatory and re search purposes was next taken up and finally, with the passage of State and Federal pure food laws, the diet of man began to be investigated—first for the prevention of adulteration and then for the improvement of human nutrition. The sequence of plant, animal and man, although apparently illogical as regards impor tance, was the natural order of research development. The passage of State and Federal laws governing the purity of insecticides made a further increase in the regulatory activities of agricul tural chemists in America and the experiment stations began to find their investigational work so seriously disturbed by regulatory interferences that many of these institutions felt obliged to transfer all work of chemical control to State chemists. The policy of separating research and control work has been adopted by most of the State experiment stations. It was put into effect in the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1927, when the execu tion of the Food and Drugs Act, the Insecticides Act, the Tea Inspection Act and the Naval Stores Act was transferred from the Bureau of Chemistry to the purely regulatory Office of Food, Drug and Insecticide Administration. The agricultural chemical research work of the department upon soils, fertilizers, foods, etc., was consolidated in a new Bureau of Chemistry and Soils.
A survey of the last classified list of projects of the U.S. agri cultural experiment stations shows that of a total of 6,61 o projects some 1,400, or about 21%, involve various applications of chem istry to agriculture. Of these 412 relate to fertilizers and ferti lizer experimentation, 188 to soils and waters, 172 to animal nu trition and 117 to human nutrition. Agricultural chemical investi gations as a whole follow the numerical order of plant nutrition, animal nutrition and human nutrition. Individual State experi ment stations specialize in particular types of research, lysimeter studies upon percolation in soils, for example, being given the most attention in Tennessee, soil acidity in Rhode Island, alkaline soils in California, vegetable proteins in Connecticut and animal calorimetry in Pennsylvania. The lines of investigation depend naturally upon the predominating agricultural needs of each sec tion, chemical investigations upon dairy products being stressed by New York, Wisconsin and other large milk-producing States, those upon flour by Minnesota and the other wheat-growing States, those upon sugar production by the cane-growing States of the South and the beet-producing States of the West and those upon corn by Iowa and other large corn-growing States of the Middle West. The most active subject of agricultural chemical research in America at the present time is that of vitamins, 23 of the State experiment stations conducting investigations in this field. Other investigations upon vitamins are being carried out in the research laboratories of various universities and in the bureaux of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
In the U.S. Department of Agriculture agricultural chemical re searches are conducted in the bureaux of chemistry and soils, plant industry, animal industry, dairy industry, forestry, entomo logy, home economics and agricultural economics. Among the more important chemical projects of these bureaux are investiga tions upon soils, fertilizers and nitrogen fixation; foods and food technology; human and animal nutrition; plant constituents; in secticides and fungicides; chemistry and technology of tanning materials, leather, paper, farm fabrics, sugar, starch, oils and fats; meat products, dairy products, forestry products, etc. ; storage of fruits, cereals and vegetables; utilization of farm wastes; spon taneous combustion ; deterioration of agricultural products ; ex plosions of agricultural dusts ; and methods of agricultural chem ical analysis. Important agricultural chemical researches are also conducted in the United States in the laboratories of the large packing houses and other industries which utilize agricultural products.
The most important agricultural chemical organization in the United States is the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists (established 1884) which publishes a journal and books of methods upon agricultural chemical analysis. (C. A. B.)