only 15.75 per cent of the total production, barley only 3.64 per cent, and rye 0.97 per cent, these three grains comprise 36.64, 6.80, and 1.70 per cent of the total grain marketed through country elevators. Oats alone comprises about the same proportion of the total grain marketed as of total crop production. From a marketing standpoint, therefore, these figures would indicate that the ratio of the marketings of wheat, barley, and rye to the total crop is about twice that of oats and three times that of corn.

Both corn and oats, especially corn, are extensively used for feeding purposes, and the figures are therefore also indicative of the relatively large amounts of both of these grains that remain on the farm for such use. The relatively smaller proportion of corn marketed, as compared with oats, is probably due to the exceedingly extensive local use of corn for feed in connection with the cattle and hog raising industry.

DISTRIBUTION OF PURCHASES OF DIFFERENT GRAINS BY STATES.-The foreging variations in total crops and total grains marketed are even more pronounced as between the various States, as appears in Table 25.

TABLE 25.-Variations in crop production and country elevator marketings of the 5 principal grains in the 14 principal grain-producing States in the crop years 1912-13 to 1916-17.

pur

pro

pur

pro

pur

pro

Per Per cent of cent of total total pur

pro

North Dakota..

pur

pro

chases duction chases duction chases duction chases duction chases duction 5 grains. 5 grains. 5 grains. 5 grains. 5 grains. 5 grains. 5 grains. 5 grains. 5 grains. 5 grains.

Minnesota..

Illinois.

South Dakota.

Iowa..

Kansas..

Nebraska.

Montana

Indiana.

Ohio.

Michigan..

Missouri.

Wisconsin..

Oklahoma.

14 States..

36.64 15.75 24.06 50.60 30.80 29.04

1.70

97 6.80

3.64

It will be noted that in every one of the 14 States in the foregoing table wheat comprises a larger proportion of the total grain marketed than it does of the total crop production. In the case of corn, on the other hand, exactly the reverse is true. Oats constitutes a higher proportion of total grain marketed than of production in Illinois, South Dakota, Iowa, Indiana, and Ohio; rye in North Dakota, Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, and Wisconsin; and barley in North Dakota, Minnesota, Illinois, South Dakota, Iowa, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The other States show a higher proportion of total crop production than of total grain marketed for each of these three grains.

Section 7. Purchases of grain by different types of elevators.

ALL TYPES.-Appendix Table 7 presents by type of house and by years the distribution of purchases of different kinds of grain for the period 1912-13 to 1916-17. (Appendix 2, inquiry 14.) The following table shows by type of house the proportion of total elevator purchases during this period represented by wheat, corn, oats, rye, and barley:

TABLE 26.-Proportions of different kinds of grain purchased by different types of elevators during the five crop years 1912-1917.

MILL AND MALTSTER ELEVATOR PURCHASES.-As between the various types of elevators, wheat constitutes nearly three-fourths of the purchases of both line and individual mill elevators and thus comprises a far greater proportion of the total purchases of these elevators than it does of those of any other type. The high proportion of wheat purchases and low proportions of all other grain purchases made by mill elevators follows from the fact already frequently alluded to in this volume, that the mill elevator is in business primarily to furnish a supply of grain to the mill, and as a rule is either not engaged at all or only incidentally in merchandising either wheat or other grains. Similarly, the extremely high percentages of barley bought by maltster elevators (81.42 per cent of the purchases of the line houses of this type and 99.63 per cent of the purchases of the individual houses) and the low proportions of other grain purchases are explainable by the fact that the maltster elevator is run as an adjunct to the malting establishment to furnish it with an adequate supply of barley in the same way as the mill elevator is operated as an adjunct of the mill to furnish a supply of wheat.

COMMERCIAL LINE, COOPERATIVE, AND INDEPENDENT PURCHASES.-The purchases of each of the five grains made by commercial lines are roughly in about the same proportion as the purchases of the same grains by individual cooperatives. Both these types buy a considerably higher proportion of wheat and barley than does the independent type and a considerably less proportion of both corn and oats. The explanation of this situation lies in the geographical distribution of these types of elevators. An examination of Appendix Table 6 reveals the fact that about one-half of the reported purchases of both corn and oats are in Illinois and Iowa, both of which States have a relatively high proportion of independent and relatively low proportion of both commercial line and cooperative elevators. The higher proportion of barley purchases reported by the commercial lines and the individual cooperatives as compared with the independent is due to a similar set of facts. As shown in

the appendix table above referred to nearly 80 per cent of the reported purchases of barley during the period under discussion were in Minnesota and the Dakotas, all three of which are important commercial line and cooperative elevator States, but low in the proportion of independent houses operating therein.

Section 8. Average bushels handled (purchased).

BY TYPES. From the reported total purchases of grain by country elevators (Appendix 2, inquiry 14) it is possible to derive the average purchases made by elevators of different types. As the purchases reported are for five years, the carry-over or inventory at the beginning and end of the period would not presumably affect the averages in any very serious degree, and the average purchase figures of different types may therefore be regarded as substantially identical with average bushels handled.15

Table 27 presents the annual average purchases of different types of country elevators during the five crop years 1912-13 to 1916-17, obtained by dividing the total purchases reported for the five years by the number of elevator years. (Appendix Table 7.)

TABLE 27.—Average number of bushels of specified grains purchased annually by specified types of country elevators in 14 States during crop years 1912-13 to 1916-17.

An examination of the foregoing table reveals some important and interesting facts. The average elevator in the 14 principal grain-producing States, according to these figures, buys close to 100,000 bushels of grain annually; 36,059 bushels of which is wheat, 30.311 oats, 23,676 corn, 6,688 barley, and 1,671 rye.

EXPLANATION OF TYPE VARIATIONS.-The average individual elevator buys or handles 119,913 bushels annually, or about 50 per cent more than the average line purchases (78,423 bushels). Excepting the cooperative lines, the line types generally report a very much lower volume of purchases than the individual types. The individual maltster elevator reports the largest volume of purchases, but on account of the small number of these elevators reporting, some doubt must be expressed as to the representative character of this average. Aside from these individual maltster elevators, the individual co

"It should be noted that these average figures vary considerably from those used in determining costs and profits (Vol. IV) on account of the carry-over and also the difference in the size of the two samples.

operative buys annually on the average a far greater volume of grain than does any other type; nearly twice the volume of either the commercial or mill line, more than twice that of the maltster line, and about one-half and one-third more than the independent and the individual mill respectively.

The generally smaller volume handled by the line type except the cooperative line, as compared with the individual type, is explainable chiefly in the terms of competitive conditions, and may probably be assigned largely to the more or less hostile attitude of the producer toward the line house (Ch. XI, sec. 11), and possibly to his belief that he will obtain a "fairer deal" from the individual elevator than from the line house. The individual elevator is locally managed and operated as a rule, and depends solely upon the locality for its patronage. Either its owners or operators, or both, are members of the community, as line agents seldom are, and it is not unreasonable to assume that with his information as to the ownership, operation, and policy of the average individual house, the producer is more willing to deal with it than with the line agent, of whom he frequently knows little and the policy of whose employer he is inclined to distrust. The large volume handled by the individual cooperative and also the cooperative line is probably in part contributed to by this opposition of some farmers to line companies, but is also attributable to patronage dividends and the attitude of the producer toward cooperative elevators and cooperation in general. (Ch. XI, sec. 11.)

The variations in the foregoing table in the proportions of different kinds of grain purchased by different types of houses are of course the same as the type variations in the proportions of total purchases of different grains and have been explained in the preceding section.

BY STATES.-Table 28 shows the variations in annual average purchases of different kinds of grain in the 14 principal grain-producing States.

TABLE 28.-Average number of bushels of specified grains purchased annually by country elevators in specified States during the crop years 1912–13 to 1916-17.

Section 9. Seasonal variations in country elevator purchases.

The following table presents in cumulative percentages the proportion of the crop of the five principal grains marketed in each

month for the two crop years 1913-14 and 1916-17. (Appendix 2, inquiry 14.) The number of elevators reporting and the total volume of their purchases of each kind of grain in each month will be found in Appendix Table 8, together with the ratio of the purchases in each month to the total purchases.

expressed in cumulative

TABLE 29.-Monthly distribution of country elevator purchases of five principal grains in the 14 principal grain-producing States percentages, crop years 1913–14 and 1916–17.

From this table some fairly definite conclusions with reference to the time distribution of country marketings can be drawn. During the first six months of the crop year about three-fourths of the wheat crop in the 14 principal grain-producing States is marketed and a somewhat higher proportion of both the rye and barley crops. Due perhaps in a considerable degree to the wide distribution of the oats crop, the proportion of this grain marketed during the first six months of the crop year is appreciably below that of wheat, barley, or rye, only 62.77 per cent of this grain in 1913-14 and 69.27 per cent in 1916-17 being marketed in the six months from July to December.

16

Corn is marketed the latest of any of the five principal grain crops. Less than one-fourth of the corn crop in the 14 States tabulated is marketed during the first four months of the crop year as compared with about one-half or more of the crop of each of the other grains. Moreover, while the heavy movement of corn begins usually in November, only about 50 per cent of the crop is marketed during the first six months of the crop year as compared with about 65 per cent of the oats and much higher proportions of wheat, rye, and barley.

The Department of Agriculture is authority for the statement that oats is the most widely distributed agricultural plant of the country excepting only the potato.-Finch and Baker, Geography of World's Agriculture, p. 35.