THE STORAGE OF WHEAT 207 



water systems, and have complete machinery for cleaning, dry- 

 ing and scouring the wheat, when it is necessary." The 28 ele- 

 vators of Buffalo have a capacity of about 22,000,000 bushels, 

 and the estimated cost of their construction is $13,000,000. Long 

 spouts containing movable buckets can be lowered from the 

 elevators into the hold of a grain laden vessel. Great steam 

 shovels draw the grain to the end of these spouts, where it is 

 seized by the buckets and carried to the elevator. The 28 ele- 

 vators have facilities for receiving from lake vessels and rail- 

 roads and transporting to cars and canal boats an aggregate of 

 5,500,000 bushels daily. Wheat is unloaded from vessels at the 

 rate of 100,000 bushels per hour, while spouts on the other side 

 of the elevator reload it into cars, 5 to 10 at a time. A 1,000- 

 bushel car is filled in 3 minutes, and the largest canal boat in 

 less than an hour. About December 31, 1905, 6,151,693 bushels 

 of wheat were afloat in the harbor of Buffalo. 



There is often a community of interest in the management 

 of railroads and elevators, as is shown by their methods of 

 operation and by the fact that the same men have heavy in- 

 vestments in both railroads and elevators. Where the rail- 

 roads owned their own storehouses they generally found it im- 

 practicable to trade in grain themselves. They made operating 

 agreements or sales in such a manner that companies or in- 

 dividuals would do this work for them. These companies 

 became the medium through which practically all the cereals 

 tributary to the respective lines of road on which they oper- 

 ated must go to market. Where laws prohibited a public ware- 

 houseman from trading in grain, other companies were organ- 

 ized, working in conjunction with warehousemen, to handle the 

 business. 



Financially, the elevator consolidations have brought money 

 from the great public money market of the world. On this 

 account the rate of interest has fallen, which has been a dis- 

 advantage to the local capitalist with small capital. Without 

 the present system of elevators a farming community would be 

 much worse off than under existing conditions, but from the 

 farmer's point of view there is ample room for improvement 

 in the present system. If the competitive system is to give way 

 to organization, the farmer must receive his proper share of 

 the benefits arising from the co-operation of all the interests 



