RECENT SUCCESSES OF AGRICUI.TURAL CO-OPERATION 



19 



fication of agricultural organization and co-operative action. The new com- 

 bination will have a capital in shares of $5,000,000. The eventual aim 

 seems to be the concentration in one organization of all the three great 

 companies of Western Canada, but hitherto the Saskatchewan Company has 

 not considered the question of merging itself in the other two. 



We will now give some exact data as tq these three farming organ- 

 izations, without further comment since the figures speak for themselves. 



§ 2. The Saskatchewan Co-opertive Elevator Company. 



The report submitted by this companj^'s board of directors to the last 

 annual general meeting, which was held at Regina on 22 November 1916, 

 includes some very significant figiures as to the business done and the pro- 

 fits realized. 



' The year in question was the fifth since the society's foundation. The 

 authorized share capital was $2,500,000 ; the share capital subscribed on 

 31 July 1916 was $2,358,900 ; and the share capital paid up at this date 

 $627,342. From I April 1915 to 31 July 1916 approximately 211,000,000 

 bushels of wheat and 59,000,000 bushels of oats, barley and flax were despatch- 

 ed from Saskatchewan. The company handled altogether 43,198,000 

 bushels of grain, or about 15.8 per cent, of the total export. It loaded 

 4, 109,000 bushels over the platform while 39,089,000 bushels passed through 

 its 230 elevators. These figures are proof of intense activity. The total 

 amount of grain which passed through its elevators in the first three years 

 of the company's existence was surpassed in this single year. On an av- 

 erage-170,000 bushels. — that is 68,000 bushels more than in the most ac- 

 tive of previous years — passed through each elevator. One of them alone 

 received 520,000 bushels. As a direct consequence of the enormous amount 

 of business done the costs of handling the grain were lower than in previous 

 years. 



The grain stocks held on 31 July 1916 were valued at $1,724,020. 



Twenty-seven new elevators weire built during the building season of 

 1916 and one was bought. Further in the beginning of last July the com- 

 panj^ began to build at Port Arthur in Ontario a terminal elevator which 

 will have a tank capacity of 2,000,000 bushels and a workhouse capacity of 

 500,000 bushels. Additional units to provide a total storage extending to 

 16,000,000 bushels can be added as required ; and the workhouse is designed 

 so that it can give a total eventual storage capacity of 8,000,000 bushels. 

 The building is to be ready on i September of this year and the estimated 

 cost of the whole undertaking is $1,225,000. 



On 31 July 1916 the cost of construction up to date was $2,024,272 ; 

 and, allowing for depreciation, the assets in the buildings were valued at 

 $ 1,861,072. The advances granted on bills of lading amounted to $ 530,476. 

 Among the liabilities of the company at this date were the loan and inter- 

 est, amounting to $1,639,267 due to the government of »Saskatchewan ; 



