Transportation of Various Commodities Received and Shipped by 644 Business Firms in 12 South Dakota Counties During One Week in July or August, 1942

A statewide study of existing transportation facilities, needs and arrangements was initiated in South Carolina on July 1 1942 by the Agricultural Economics Department of the Experimental Station at South Dakota State College, in cooperation with the Extension Service and State and County War Boards. The study was immediately prompted as a contribution to the war effort with the objective of finding means of relieving the rubber situation and an imminent shortage of motor transportation and man power. However, in addition to assisting in relieving the present emergency, the study promises to produce valuable results of a permanent character. The general plan and outline of the study, as undertaken in South Dakota, had its inception in Corn Belt Livestock Marketing Research Committee, and was set up as project No. 2 of this Committee, as a result of 14 states in this area and the Division of Marketing and Transportation Research of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics cooperating in a regional livestock marketing study in 1941. The work in South Dakota has been made possible by the wholehearted support and cooperation of the State and County Agricultural Extension workers and War Board chairmen, who assisted in securing the field data, and the truckers and business firms, who supplied the basic data. In South Dakota the study was divided into the following phases: (1) survey of transportation arrangements at livestock markets; (2:) survey of transportation uses and arrangements in 12 counties of business firms in receiving or shipping various commodities; (3) survey of farmer transportation uses and needs in 26 counties; and (4) a survey of creamery, produce and oil routes in 6 selected counties. A report has already been made of the livestock marketing phase, was issued as Agricultural Economics Pamphlet No. 4. The present report deals with the receipts and shipments during one week of July or August, of 644 business firms in 12 counties of South Dakota