[An example of the economic problem of place-value is found in the location of farms relative to the shipping points on railroads or on navigable waters. The Bureau of Statistics of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, in Bulletin 49, issued in 1907, published the results of an inquiry in which replies were received from correspondents in nearly two thousand counties. Most of the explanation of the methods used in the calculations, and most of the detailed tables may be omitted, but the following extracts give the main results of the inquiry.]

Rates of hiring and actual costs. The price for hiring a team, wagon, and driver for one day in a given community is taken, in this investigation, as the cost of hauling in that community - the cost to the farmer to perform that service for himself. It is known that farmers in the United States usually do their own hauling, and in many parts of the country the practice prevails of exchanging services, so that a number of men may on one day haul enough of one man's produce to load a railway freight car, and on another day they perform the same service for a second member of the group, continuing this until all members have been helped; but, as a general fact, it is rare that a farmer hires his produce hauled to a shipping point or local market, and in many communities the practice is unknown.

In a few parts of the wheat regions of the Mississippi Valley farmers hire their grain hauled at certain rates per bushel; and professional "freighters" are important aids to the farmers and grazers between the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific coast. This region is one of great distances, and it does not pay all of the producers to keep enough horses, wagons, and drivers to move their wool, cotton, or other surplus over the long distances of 50, 75, 100, and even 150 miles from the ranch to the "local" shipping point or market. The "freighter" will take the produce for a moderate charge, and on his return trip will bring merchants' goods and farm supplies from the distant railroad station.

Conditions affecting actual cost. Hauling in most cases may be regarded as a secondary employment for the horses, wagons, and drivers of the farm, the chief duties of the men with their teams being on farms themselves. . . . But the price paid for hiring may be regarded, generally, as subject to competition and, hence, tending to equal a sum which will just cover the actual cost of performing the service and allow a fair profit in addition. The actual cost to a farmer of performing the service of hauling for himself may in certain instances be less than the cost of hiring, and in other cases it may be more. The hauling may be done when no other farm work is pressing and when teams and wagons would have no other employment. One-half the cost of hauling may be saved when it is practicable to take full loads on the return trips. Sometimes farmers haul produce to market and return with loads of fertilizer, coal, or other goods. These back loads, however, may be regarded as rather exceptional, and their influence upon the average cost per load of produce hauled from the farm, as computed in the following tables, is not known to be important.

On the other hand the farmer's expense of hauling may be increased on account of bad roads; he may be compelled to deliver his product at the local shipping point when prices are low or wait for a better market and run the risk of having to haul over rough roads with more horses to the wagon and a much lighter load. Some persons prefer to sell at a lower price than to wait for a better market and incur the expense of hauling under difficulties which may amount to double or even four times the normal cost.

Taking into consideration the low and the high costs of hauling, it does not appear that the average cost is not about the usual price for hiring in that community. . . .

Table 1. - Average Costs Of Hauling Products From Farms To Shipping Points: Totals For States Represented.

a Kentucky only. b Average for six States only. c Iowa only.

Values of products and costs of hauling. The average costs per 100 pounds for hauling products from farms to shipping points vary in a number of instances roughly with the relative values of the articles hauled, the more valuable product being hauled often at greater cost than the less valuable product. Corn, wheat, oats, hay, and potatoes were hauled at costs ranging from 7 to 9 cents per 100 pounds, cotton 16 cents, and wool 44 cents per 100 pounds. Tobacco and hogs, however, cost only 10 cents per 100 pounds to be hauled from farms. The difference in cost of hauling between one product and another is largely due to the relative distance traversed and the relative size of load taken. It will pay to produce cotton farther away from local shipping points than grain, and 150 miles is not too far to haul wool from ranches to railroad stations. Hogs being produced generally where grain is also a surplus crop, the prevailing distances and methods of hauling for the cheaper products would affect the cost of hauling the higher-priced commodity.

Hauling cotton and wool. [Of the detailed comment (Bulletin, pages 14-34) upon the various crops in the different States, only a part regarding cotton and wool is here given.] ... As in the case of nearly all other farm products, cotton is generally hauled to local shipping points by the farmers themselves, and hiring such work done is the exception. Owing to its high value, cotton may be transported profitably in much smaller loads and for longer distances than a less valuable article, as grain or hay. It is noted that the average load of cotton weighs about one-half as much as the average load of wheat in the United States, but a load of cotton, at prices prevailing in October, 1906, was worth more than four average loads of wheat.

For the United States the average cost of hauling cotton from farms to shipping points is about 80 cents per bale, and the average load is a fraction more than three bales. One-horse carts and wagons and ox carts are found more serviceable in hauling the main crops in the cotton region than in the grain country, and their use helps to account for the small average loads. It is of interest to see that one of the smallest average loads of cotton for any State or Territory is in Florida, where about one-half the crop consists of Sea Island cotton, a variety much more valuable than the rest of the cotton produced in the United States. . . .

The average cost of hauling wool to shipping points is high on account of the great distances traversed, the average for the United States being 39.8 miles, and the distance in at least one county whose returns enter into the averages was 150 miles. Hauling over these long routes is usually done by freight wagons, owned and driven by persons other than the producers of the wool, and the rates actually paid for hauling are used in these instances as the cost of wagon transportation from farm or ranch to shipping point. The large number of actual rates paid entering into the average cost of hauling wool in the United States makes this figure (44 cents per 100 pounds) appear to be one of the most accurate of the average costs determined.