206 THE BOOK OF WHEAT 



From 1871 to 1887, the Chicago elevators were managed by 

 persons whose sole business was the warehousing of grain. Com- 

 petition was active, and Chicago was the best market to which 

 grain could be sent from the "West. By 1892 a change took 

 place. The elevators had passed into the control of persons 

 who immediately embarked in the grain-buying business. Nearly 

 every railroad terminating in Chicago favored some elevator 

 system with concessions that gave control of the grain 

 business of the road. As early as 1894, there was an association 

 of all the elevator people in Chicago, and all of the great ter- 

 minal elevators were owned by a comparatively 'few men or 

 firms. The owners of public elevators bought a large pro- 

 portion of the grain that was received, and they also controlled 

 great private elevators. 



Minneapolis had a grain storage capacity of 27,485,000 

 bushels in 1898, and the largest elevator had a capacity of 2,300,- 

 000 bushels. Some 23 elevators, having two-thirds of the city's 

 storage capacity, were operated under the Chamber of Com- 

 merce rules, 4 were operated under the state warehouse law, and 

 the remaining 6 were private elevators. Minneapolis is perhaps 

 the most notable city as a center for powerful houses which 

 control elevator lines. At the close of the century it had 

 36 elevator companies, which controlled 1,862 country elevators 

 with a combined capacity of about 50,000,000 bushels of wheat. 

 St. Louis has 8 public elevators with a total storage capacity 

 of 6,900,000 bushels, and 25 private elevators with a capacity 

 of 2,475,000 bushels. The largest elevator has a capacity of 

 1,500,000 bushels. It can receive and deliver 30,000 bushels per 

 hour. The total capacity of all public elevators for receiving 

 and delivering grain per Hour is 181,000 bushels. Kansas City, 

 Missouri, has 24 elevators having a total storage capacity of 

 9,280,000 bushels. The largest elevator has a storage capacity 

 of 1,000,000 bushels, and a capacity of receiving and of de- 

 livering 15,000 bushels per hour. A total of 215,000 bushels can 

 be received and delivered by all elevators. 



Duluth and Buffalo are the two other great inland elevator 

 centers. Some of the elevators of Buffalo have a storage capa- 

 city of 2,800,000 bushels, are " built of steel, operated by 

 electricity from Niagara Falls, protected from fire by pneumatic 



