Q2 Z2,(Q2) Z2(Q2) - Institute for Water Resources - U.S. Army

made through questionnaires to country elevators, (1) the three modes
shipments represented about 60 per cent of all the corn shipped from
the five crop districts which enclose the area under study; 21 per cent
were shipped to Peoria, Decatur, and other destinations in Illinois;
about 5 per cent was shipped by barge to Chicago, and the rest was shipped
to more distant markets, mainly-to the South and the West by rail or
by truck. Accordingly, if one sets aside the corn shipments to
destinations within Illinois other than Chicago, approximately 80 per cent
of the remaining corn shipments were made by one of the three modes the
present study is taking into account. These statistics should confirm the
relevance of these three modes.
As mentioned above, three months have been selected for separate
statistical analysis. The month period appeared to be a reasonable
compromise among several requirements: the need for sufficient sample size:,
the wish to take into account seasonal pecularities, and the necessity of
using a period short enough to keep the influence of the variations in
market prices- within reasonable limits. This may be the time to point out
that this analysis will deal with three different' marketprices: the price
on the market of New-Orleans, the price for truck grain in Chicago, and the
price for rail grain in Chicago. Monthly averages of these prices have to
be introduced since we do not know the precise price that each shipment of
corn obtained. (2) Variations in the relations among these three prices
during a month probably explain a .certain amount of the shipments which
are made by two modes from a common origin.
(1)
D.W. Kloth, 'The Transurtation of Illinois Corn, Wheat, and Soybeans -
Volume Movements to Intrastate and Interstate Destinations and Factors
Influencing such Movements', Unpublished Master Thesis, Southern Illinois
University, 1964, pp. 43 - 58.
As the categories used by the author do not correspond completely to
ours, these percentages are only good approximations. The five districts
used to reach these percentages are the Northwest, Northeast, West, East,
and Central Districts.
(2) Averages computed from the spot prices of No. 2 Yellow Corn published in
'Grain Market News, Weekly', United States Department of Agriculture,
Consumer and Marketing Service, Grain Division, Chicago.
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