234 THE BOOK OF CORN 



round lot for manufacturing purposes ; a miller wants 

 a car for grinding. Oftentimes the buying is for ac- 

 count of city elevator concerns, which accumulate large 

 quantities, using same for speculative purposes, and 

 ultimately for shipment to the seaboard and foreign 

 countries. 



The price, however, in any instance is governed 

 very largely by the speculative market. This in turn 

 is dominated by influences emanating not only from 

 the Chicago corn pit, but from the seaboard markets, 

 and from conditions in western Europe which, after 

 all, very largely determine what shall be paid for the 

 surplus grain crops of the entire world. Trading is on 

 a spot cash basis, and the transaction may be made 

 much quicker than the time required to describe it. 

 After deducting freights, commission charges, etc, a 

 check in payment is immediately sent the country ship- 

 per, and the transaction is complete so far as he is 

 concerned. 



Rates of commission for selling corn on the prod- 

 uce exchanges are fairly uniform ; on the Chicago board 

 of trade one-half cent per bushel is the established 

 rate. Other charges include storage, if any, inspec- 

 tion, etc. 



THE SPECULATIVE TRADE IN GRAIN 



The produce exchanges, or the boards of trade, 

 terms generally used synonymously, serve as clearing 

 houses for transactions in farm produce as here indi- 

 cated. The line of demarcation between the so-called 

 "purely speculative" and "strictly legitimate" transac- 

 tions is so fine at times that it is scarcely discernible. 

 Suffice it here to say that influences affecting grain 

 prices are often and largely speculative in a world-wide 

 sense. 



Influences Affecting Prices — To be thoroughly 

 successful, the farmer who grows corn for market 



