550 Journal of Agriculture. [lo Sept., 1910. 



getting his grain to market with the least expense and labour. The farmer 

 there has to cut his crops with the reaper and binder, then thresh it mostly 

 in the field, and cart the grain loose in a box waggon to the barn, where 

 it is stored in bulk, bags being used only to convey it from the thre.sher 

 to the waggon, and often dispensed with altogether, the grain being elevated 

 direct into the waggon. The box waggon is simply a large box, strongly 

 made, with a shoot in the side or bottom, capable of holding 100 bushels 

 or more, and bolted on to the platform of the ordinary farm waggon. 

 The barn is strong, wheat proof lined, and may be built on the silo prin- 

 ciple, or square, according to suitable conditions, with a raised roadway 

 on one side, so that the grain can be shot in from the box waggon 

 near the roof. On the other side a sunken roadway is required to fill the 

 waggon by gravitation from the shoots near the bottom of the barn, when 

 carting the grain to the railway station. These two roadways do away 

 with the need of machinery, to elevate the grain. Barns may be divided 

 into bins, and a movable shoot directs the grain into any bin required, 

 according to quality and cleanness. 



A country railway station has either an elevator capable of storing from 

 ten to fifty thousand bushels, some with cleaning and automatic weighing 

 machines, or raised platforms with sloping ends so that the box waggons 

 may be drawn on to them; the shoot is then adjusted, and the grain runs 

 by gravitation into the truck, emptying in a few minutes. The length of 

 these platforms depends on the traffic at tlie station. 



The terminal elevator is at the port of shipment, and is capable of 

 storing immense quantities of grain. Most of the cleaning is done there. 

 The giant elevator of the world is at Port Arthur, on Lake Superior, in 

 Canada, and is owned by the Northern Railway Company. It is capable 

 of storing 7,000,000 bushels, and able to unload 30 trucks of 1,000 bushels 

 each per hour. The charge for unloading, reloading, cleaning, weighing, 

 and storing for fifteen days is half a cent or ^d. per bushel ; after that 

 :^d. per bushel for every 30 days. The cost of an elevator depends on the 

 storing capacity, and 6d. per bushel of storage will build a country one. 

 The pneumatic system, which elevates the grain by suction, is considered 

 the better and cheaper method, as the working cost per bushel is very 

 small. The bins in this system are made of steel and are circular, thus 

 giving perfect safety to the grain from fire and insects, while the loss 

 of weight by evaporation is hardly noticeable. 



The Manitoban Grain Act, which is a masterpiece of legislation in the 

 producers' interests, practically governs the handling of grain in Canada, 

 and it requires the owner, lessee, or manager of any elevator, warehouse, 

 or mill, al.so grain commission merchants and track buyers, to have an 

 annual licence, find security bonds and keep books of all transactions in 

 a form approved by the Commissioner. The charge for storage, cleaning, 

 handling, insuring, receiving, and delivering is subject to such regulations 

 or reductions as the Governor in Council from time to time deems proper. 

 All grain is graded and weighed by officials, who fix the dockage and give 

 a certificate showing the grade of the wheat. The dockage is the esti- 

 mated loss on a bushel through cleaning. Wheat must be cleaned before 

 shipment to Europe. 



In Canada in 1 900-1 901 there were 421 country elevators and five ter- 

 minal elevators, with a storage capacity of 19,000.000 bushels. In 

 1909-10 country elevators had increased to 1766, and terminal, milling, 



