CONCERNING THE TERMINALS 187 



so full with other important things that expropriation 

 and all that it involved would claim their whole time 

 and energy to the neglect of other urgent matters. 

 Accordingly, the Grain Commissioners recommended 



/that the Government meet the immediate need of 

 increased terminal facilities at the head of the lakes 

 by building a three-million-bushel elevator, thoroughly 

 equipped for storing, cleaning, drying and handling 

 grain and with provision for future extensions to a 

 capacity of thirty million bushels. They also approved 

 of the Grain Growers' Grain Company leasing one of 

 the C. P. R. elevators. In this way both the Board and 

 the Grain Growers would gain first-hand knowledge of 

 terminal elevator conditions. 



While formulating a policy for terminal elevators 

 the Grain Commissioners considered the need for 

 terminal storage in the interior as well as at the lake- 

 front. The increase in the area of the grain fields, 

 particularly in Alberta, was straining the transporta- 

 tion facilities to the limit and the construction of the 

 Grand Trunk Pacific promised to open up still more 



/acreage. Railway rolling stock, railway yard accom- 

 modations at Winnipeg and Fort William and elevator 

 storage were not keeping pace with the annual volume 

 of new grain. The Government Inspection Department 

 was up to its eyes in grain, working night and day 

 during the rush season, while lake and ocean tonnage 

 likewise were inadequate. Even the eleven million 

 bushels of extra storage capacity being built at the lake 

 at the time the Board was considering the situation 

 would soon fill and overflow. Congestion at eastern 

 transfer houses or terminal points was threatening, 

 water freight rates were up and the export market 

 disturbed and there was no reserve of storage capacity 



