6o CANADA - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL 



the cold storage companies tweiit3'-nine millions were sold by the ten large 

 companies specified, five and a half millions by one company alone, five by 

 another and four and a half by yet another. The great abattoir houses soM 

 twenty-two out of the forty-four millions. Their general average margin 

 is higher than that of the export houses but lower than that of all the cold- 

 storage companies. Of butter onh' is this latter circumstance true. 



Cheese. — Two companies alone sold over fift3' million of the total 

 seventy-two million pounds of cheese sold by all the cold storage compa- 

 nies of Canada in 1916. Fort^-nine out of these fifty million pounds were 

 exported. These two companies therefore virtually monopolized the 

 cold storage of cheese for export. Company No. 10, the larger of the two, 

 shows a ver)' moderate profit, much lower than the average for all the cold 

 storage companies of Canada. Xo. 8, the smaller, shows a lower cost price, 

 and a higher margin due to the larger proportion of its cheese which it 

 sold for home consumption. vSome of the more important cheese dealers 

 state that for a short time cheese factories and produce dealers attempted 

 to carry on their own export trade without the intervention of these two 

 companies, but found that thej* received better renumeration by dealing 

 through them. The average selling price for export of Company No. 10 iu 

 1916 was 18.37 cents a pound and that of No. 8 was 18.96 cents. Another 

 cheese companj' in the central part of Southern Ontario sold 9,870,06 j 

 pounds of cheese in 1916, the bulk for home consumption. Thus three 

 companies sold sixty and a half million pounds of cheese out of the seventy- 

 two and a half million pounds sold by all the cold storage companies in 

 Canada. 



Beef. — The centralization of the beef trade in the hands of a few com- 

 panies is even more marked than that of the trade in eggs and dairy produce. 

 Of the 170 million pounds of beef wliich passed through cold storage last 

 year 124 million were sold bj' the seven large abattoir companies, ninetj'-nine 

 and a half million pounds were sold b}- three companies only, and nearly 112 

 million pounds b}- four companies only. Of the total 189 million pounds 

 bought b}- all the cold storage companies more than sixt}' millions were sold 

 by branches of American companies, at a smaller profit than the Canadian 

 houses and almost entireh- for consumption in Canada. The margin of 

 the largest comapny, nainel3' No. 4, is lower than the general margin, but 

 the average margin of the four largest companies taken together is consi- 

 derabh' higher than the general margin. Tliis latter circumstance is con- 

 sistent with what is found in the case of other commodities. 



Bacon — Company 9 sold, at a margin of 5.05 cents a pound, ninety- 

 seven millions out of the total 151 million which passed through cold sto- 

 rage in 1915. At least ninet^'-four out of these ninety-seven millions \\'ere 

 intended for export. In 191 5 the same company sold fifty-seven and a 

 half million pounds at a margin of 3.67 cents : there was no evidence of an 

 increase in the storage or other costs to account for the rise on this earlier 

 margin which the investigators found to have been " sufficient, satisfac- 

 tory and profitable ". Companies 5 and 9 together sold 140 millions of 

 the 150 million pounds of bacon sold in 1916 by all the cold storage compa 



