WHEAT IN WESTERN CANADA 113 



of which the buyer now gets possession, is in storage in an 

 elevator at Tort William or Port Arthur on the water 

 front of Lake Superior. We thus see that the 5,000 

 bushels of wheat that were originally bought in the trans- 

 action in the wheat pit have gone not to the original buyer 

 but to some one else. Having now disposed of the original 

 seller in the transaction in the wheat pit, let us turn our 

 attention to the original buyer. How does he obtain the 

 5,000 bushels of wheat which he purchased ? The original 

 buyer waits until May until his turn to receive May wheat 

 arrives. The Manager of the Clearing House then in- 

 forms him that a certain seller has 5,000 bushels of May 

 wheat to deliver and that he is to accept this wheat from 

 this particular seller, and he also informs the seller that 

 he is to deliver his wheat to our original buyer. It is 

 then the duty of the original buyer to accept the 5,000 

 bushels of wheat from the seller with whom the Clearing 

 House has brought him into contact ; and this second pair 

 of buyers and sellers, like the first pair, completes the 

 transaction with a marked check and a warehouse receipt 

 for the grain. The wheat delivered is always of just the 

 same grade and quality as that originally purchased, so 

 that in the end nothing it lost by the substitution of one 

 seller for another at the time the delivery of the wheat is 

 made. 



The Clearing House system, as it affects traders, in \ 

 simplifying their transactions in respect to future deliv- 

 eries of wheat, and in guaranteeing security for the ful- 

 fillment of such transactions, may be thus described. 

 Every member of the Clearing House is bound at the end 

 of each working day to send in a sheet showing purchases 

 made, the names of the vendors, and the prices. He must 

 also send in another sheet showing the sales he has made, 

 the names of the purchasers, and the prices. The amounts 



