96 



sold at even with specially granted facilities, reduced 

 freights, free import, cheap manufacture, railway rates, 

 etc., and still the cost is beyond reason and demands a 

 radical reduction. 



I will not insist on the necessity of reducing tfie 

 present war prices, of $1 each and above, or even that 

 fixed by the Royal Wheat Commission at 75 cents nom- 

 inal ; we all realise the fact only too well . 



Normally each sack the farmer uses costs but lit- 

 tle, it is true, and the expenditure on sacks has come to 

 be regarded as part of the costs of the undertaking, none 

 the less the amount penalises tjie farmer not alone be- 

 cause it is unnecessary, but what is more, because the 

 use of sacks brings in its train much heavier losses. 



From the money spent on sacks the farmer recuper- 

 ates nothing. The $60,000,000 inverted in sacks in nor- 

 mal times are a deal loss each year to the country. 



Elevators would do away with the loss because they 

 store the grain in bins, chambers, or silos. 



They do not do away with the use of sacks altoge- 

 ther, but where the farmer uses 10 sacks to-day he will 

 use only one the day elevators exist throughout the 

 country . 



ONE HUNDRED MILLIONS CAPITAL IDLE. 



Sheds, "galpones," "trojes", "tinglados'', in which 

 the grain must remain in the sacks, do not, as we have 

 every evidence, solve the problem of our sacks. On the 

 contrary, they add to its difficulties on account of their 

 holding up the sacks, . thus preventing their being used 

 over and over again ; they bring about an artificial short- 

 age of sacks and, as has been amply demonstrated this 

 year again, help to increase the price. 



Unless elevators are provided, next year sacks will 

 represent a still larger figure, and continually so as we 

 attempt to increase our production. Whenever anything 

 occurs to delay exportation, so shall we suffer more and 

 be exposed to even greater embarrassments. If an at- 

 tempt is made to take advantage of the Warrant Law and 

 store our grain when we cannot dispose of it at once, 

 then instead of diminishing our difficulties over sacks 

 it will add to them; instead of a normal sixty millions 

 of pesos in sacks we shall never get away from spend- 

 ing as much as we are to-day, that is nearly five times 

 as much. 



The use of sheds, etc., or any place of deposit that 

 does not permit emptying out the grain and storing it in 



