176 DEEP FURROWS 



It is to be noted that in reporting upon general con- 

 ditions in the grain trade of Canada in 1910 the 

 Saskatchewan Elevator Commission pointed out the 

 great change which had taken place since 1900. One 

 factor in this had been the construction of new trans- 

 continental lines and thousands of miles of branch 

 railway lines together with a great increase in car 

 supply and a more efficient and cheaper system of 

 transportation. Again, the use of loading-platforms 

 had introduced real competition with the elevators, 

 almost fifteen million bushels of the 1908-09 crop in 

 Western Canada having been shipped direct by the 

 farmers. The development of co-operation among the 

 farmers through the Grain Growers' Associations had 

 led to much advantageous legislation, while Farmers' 

 Elevators and Public Weigh Scales had had a salutary 

 effect at many shipping points. The organization of 

 the Grain Growers' Grain Company as a farmers' own 

 selling agency likewise had exerted a wide influence for 

 good all over the West, enabling the farmers to obtain 

 first-hand information about existing methods of deal- 

 ing in grain. Finally, the protection afforded by the 

 Manitoba Grain Act was not to be questioned; for 

 while it was impossible to draft any Act which would 

 prevent all the abuses alleged, it had been the means of 

 providing many weapons of defence for the farmer 

 and unfamiliarity with these provisions by individual 

 farmers was scarcely to be blamed upon the Act itself. 



The improvement in conditions, compared with 

 earlier years, was recognized by most of the farmers 

 appearing before the commission and many of them 

 had no personal complaint to make in regard to 

 weights, grades or prices. They were advocates of 

 provincial ownership not so much on their own behalf 



