═════════╤══════════════╤═══════════════╤══════════════╤═══════════════ │Heavy hogs at │ 1,200 to │Butter extras │ No. 2 corn at │ Chicago, per │ 1,500-lb. │ at Elgin, │Chicago, cents │ cwt. │ steers at │ cents per │ per bushel. │ │ Chicago per │ pound. │ │ │ cwt. │ │ ─────────┼──────────────┼───────────────┼──────────────┼─────────────── January │ .0583│ .0597│ .263│ .499 February │ .0604│ .0593│ .255│ .503 March │ .0638│ .0620│ .251│ .514 April │ .0652│ .0631│ .241│ .537 May │ .0631│ .0636│ .215│ .555 June │ .0632│ .0655│ .212│ .551 July │ .0638│ .0659│ .212│ .572 August │ .0638│ .0670│ .219│ .602 September│ .0642│ .0665│ .233│ .582 October │ .0620│ .0656│ .242│ .559 November │ .0578│ .0634│ .254│ .537 December │ .0568│ .0621│ .264│ .518 ─────────┴──────────────┴───────────────┴──────────────┴─────────────── With Dun’s index number at $245 for December of 1919, the method of finding the index price of hogs is to multiply $245 by .0568, which gives $13.92. It is not claimed that the ratio between Dun’s index number and hogs, for instance, is as constant as the ratio between hogs and corn. In the decade of the ’60’s, hogs sold for one-third lower in relation to Dun’s index number than in the decade ending in 1916. There has been a constant tendency for farm products to sell constantly higher in relation to Dun’s index number. And this tendency doubtless will continue until population becomes stationary, altho there may be several years at a time when the tendency is apparently halted because of improvements in agricultural efficiency. In the main, the possibility of improvements in industrial efficiency is so much greater than in agriculture that we may expect that agricultural prices will stand in constantly higher ratio to other prices, until finally the increase in population is checked. Working out ratios between Dun’s index number and retail prices as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we find that as an average of the 1907–1916 period, .183 of Dun’s index number represented the price of sirloin steak in cents per pound. For other commodities sold at retail the ratio factors were: TABLE 1.