17 



The total value of our cereal exports w<-re in 

 just over MOO millions, so that n.-arly MM per cent is added 

 to their value for the producer by better methods, with- 

 out iiK-rensing their price to our clients. 



Now above all then' is the difference in price : in the 

 price at which the cereals are disposed of by the fanners 

 to the grain merchants or (icopiador, and their actual va- 

 lues on the consuming markets. 



We know that our "chacarero" without capital, and 

 unable to make use of the warrant, because there are no 

 .ators to classify and store his grain, has to sell his 

 crop just as it is harvested, wet or dry, dirty or clean, 

 pure or mixed with innumerable other grains, and has to 

 submit to the arbitrary classification of the grain buyer 

 who estimates its value according to his ideas, and pays 

 his own price, which means penalising its value to the 

 extent of at least 30 to 40 per cent. 



If the price ruling on the market for cereals, sound 

 and of required weight is $10 m|n. the colonists should 

 actually receive this, and not as at present one third less. 

 Elevators will abolish this arbitrary classification. 



Then to the above mentioned ^advantages there must 

 be added those which the handling and storing of a sound, 

 classified cereal must give to the producer, and his being 

 able to operate on it with the aid of the warrant, and 

 thus secure its direct sale on the markets. 



How many more millions would these items repre- 

 sent in the general economy? 



The absence of elevators occasions an unjustified loss 

 of such importance that with the loss of one year alone 

 there could be constructed one thousand regional storage 

 elevators and the terminal elevators in the ports with all 

 the appliances for the embarking of the crop, which are 

 at present non-existent or insufficient. 



SIX MILLION TONS STORAGE CAPACITY. 



The Government projected the construction of 1,165 

 granaries in the railway stations with a total storage 

 capacity of some 5,000,000 tons; besides these, others 

 with a total capacity of another 250,000 tons outside the 

 stations; in the ports, others sufficient to hold 450,000 

 tons, a total of sufficient capacity to handle nearly 6 

 millions tons, or 95 per cent, of that part of the harvest of 

 wheat, linseed and oats, which is transported in good years 

 by the railways; the harvesting of maize, which com- 

 mences when the greater part of the wheat, etc., has left 

 the county, would find sufficient storage space up to 

 about 80 per cent, of the crop. 



