WHEAT IN^ WESTERN CANADA 63 



the operator wishes to fill. The different grades of wheat 

 are kept in separate bins. If, therefore, our car-load of 

 wheat has been graded at Winnipeg as 'No. 1 Northern, it 

 would be deposited in a No. 1 Northern bin, if as No. 2 

 Northern, then in a No. 2 Northern bin; and so forth. 

 When a car-load of wheat has been put in a bin with other 

 wheat of the same grade, it loses its identity and cannot 

 again be recovered. Wheat in a terminal elevator is there- 

 fore stored in bulk according to grade. This storage in 

 bulk greatly simplifies the work of the elevator and cheap- 

 ens the cost of handling the grain. The wheat is not only 

 stored in bulk according to grade but is also bought and 

 sold for export in the same manner. We have seen our 

 car-load of wheat pass into the elevator, be weighed, 

 cleaned, and deposited in a storage bin, but here we lose 

 it as such: if it was No. 1 Northern, we simply know 

 that it has been mixed with other wheat in a No. 1 North- 

 ern bin. Wheat which has arrived at the elevator after 

 the formation of ice has brought navigation to a close, 

 i. e., after the middle of the second week in December, 

 must be kept in storage until the next May when naviga- 

 tion is again resumed or be shipped away on an all-rail 

 route. 



When it is desired to ship away, say, 100,000 bushels 

 of No. 1 Northern, the wheat in certain of the No. 1 

 Northern storage bins is let out through their bases into 

 the tunnels, conveyed by belts running horizontally along 

 the tunnels to the bottom of the working house, elevated 

 by buckets to the top of the working house, and there 

 weighed in the scales. After being weighed, it is sent 

 down the elevator through a system of spouts into one or 

 more of the shipping bins, and from there it is conveyed 

 by spouts on the outside of the elevator into the hold of a 

 vessel or into a railway car. 



