106 ESSAYS ON WHEAT 



nearly all of the agricultural population are supplied with 

 figures which enable sellers to dispose of their grain under 

 conditions which thev consider to be most advantageous 

 to themselves.^^ In 1915-16 the Exchange was the larg- 

 est of all the cash wheat markets on the American con- 

 tinent.^2 j^ ^jj^t year nearly $500,000,000 were dis- 

 tributed throughout the Prairie Provinces, and nearly all 

 of this business was by verbal or telegraphic communica- 

 tion. So high, however, were the business ethics of the 

 Exchange, that there was not an agriculturist who did 

 not receive full money for his grain.^^ Through the 

 efforts of the Exchange, permanent standards have been 

 secured for the various grades of grain, and these have 

 proved of gTeat benefit to producers and grain dealers 

 alike throughout the West. 



The Grain Exchange provides a most convenient meet- 

 ing place for buyers and sellers. The sellers who act 

 either directly or indirectly for the producers, are the 

 elevator companies, farmers' trading companies, and com- 

 mission men ; while the buyers who represent the con- 

 sumers, are the Canadian millers and exporters. The ex- 

 porters sell to English or European mills either directly or 

 through other grain exchanges. 



The price of wheat is like the mercury in a barometer 

 in that it is constantly fluctuating from hour to hour, from 

 day to day, and from week to week. In neither case can 

 even the wisest of men predict the changes in detail. The 

 mercury in the barometer rises or falls in delicate response 

 to the slightest alterations in the pressure of the atmo- 

 sphere. The price of wheat on the Winnipeg Grain Ex- 

 change is equally sensitive to pressure of another kind: 

 it goes up and down in s\Tnpathy with the ever-changing 



41 W. E. Milner, loc. cit., p. 27. 



42 Ibid., p. 26. 

 *3 Ibid. 



