WHEAT IN WESTERN CANADA 109 



agents to communicate with members of the Grain Ex- 

 change directly ; but were the Exchange at the lake front, 

 such communication, owing to distance, would be very 

 much more restricted. The buyers are relatively few, 

 while the farmers or producers are relatively numerous. 

 It is, as Piper *^ says, " easier to bring the concentrated 

 portion of the business from Fort William and Port 

 Arthur to Winnipeg than it is to take the divergent and 

 extended portion of the business from the grain fields 

 in the west to Fort William." The buyers can operate 

 with relatively slight inconvenience to themselves at a dis- 

 tance from the terminal elevators, whereas, if the farmers 

 and those who represent them were obliged to travel an ex- 

 tra 420 miles to the lake front when they wished to visit 

 the Exchange, they would be put to a very considerable 

 extra expense and loss of time. It is therefore not sur- 

 prising, all this being considered, that the most impor- 

 tant and largest Grain Exchange of the West is situated at 

 Winnipeg and not at Fort William or Port Arthur. 



XXV. The Grain Exchange Clearing House 



For various reasons it is often necessary for grain 

 dealers to deal in what are known as futures, i. e., to buy 

 or sell grain which is to be delivered to the purchaser 

 during some future month. Thus, in August, a miller 

 might buy September wheat, i. e., wheat that must be 

 delivered to him in September, or October, ISfovember 

 or December wheat, i. e., wheat that must be delivered to 

 him in the months of October, ISTovember, or December re- 

 spectively; and in the winter he might buy May wheat, 

 i. e., wheat that must be delivered to him in May, and so 



*8 C. B. Piper, Principles of the Grain Trade of Western Canada, 

 p. 171. 



