purpose of its operation. Whether or not such houses engage, in addition, in a merchandising business, depends upon various circumstances. But even though they do, this merchandising is usually regarded as of subordinate importance in all but exceptional cases. By constructing an elevator or warehouse, the mill provides storage space for grain which may be held therein and used as required. By the ownership of one or more elevators or warehouses, the mill avoids, in many cases, middlemen's charges and thus secures its grain at a lower price. In case of a shortage in local receipts the mill house will usually pay a higher price than other types of houses. Since it is buying for milling purposes it does not, in consequence, find it necessary in bidding to consider the merchandising profit as do the other principal types of houses. Two or more of such houses at different points operated together constitute a line.

LINE AND INDIVIDUAL MALTSTER HOUSES.-The purpose of maltsters in operating elevators and warehouses is primarily the same as that of the mill operator-to insure a supply of grain, barley. Maltster houses, like those operated by mills, may or may not merchandise grain, depending on circumstances. These houses are distinguishable from the mill type, therefore, only in the fact that they are operated by maltsters and brewers instead of millers and that they buy chiefly barley instead of wheat. Two or more of them located at different points and operated by one concern are regarded as a line. Section 5. Number of elevators and warehouses reporting and reported.

METHOD OF TABULATING RETURNS.-Returns to the country elevator schedule (Appendix 2) were made by 9,906 elevators and warehouses. According to information obtained from the Department of Agriculture and the Food Administration, there are probably not far from 30,000 country elevators and warehouses in the United States. These returns therefore probably embrace about one-third of all such houses in the country.

In tabulating these replies the returns to most of the inquiries are presented according to geographical distribution of elevators and warehouses and also according to the type of houses reporting.

Elevators were tabulated separately for 14 States, as follows: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wisconsin; and for three grand divisions, i. e., Mountain and Pacific, Southern, and Middle Atlantic. The 14 States tabulated were selected partly because of the fact that they were leading grainproducing States, but more especially by reason of the fact that they were the only ones returning a sufficient number of schedules to wa"rant separate presentation by States.

Warehouses were tabulated for four divisions-the Mountain and Pacific, Central, Southern, and Middle Atlantic. The States included in the latter divisions are as follows: Mountain and PacificArizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Central-Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Southern-Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. Middle Atlantic-New Jersey, New York, and Penn

sylvania. The Mountain and Pacific division of elevators coincides with the Mountain and Pacific division of warehouses, except that the State of Montana, which was separately tabulated for elevators, is omitted, and the Southern division of elevators coincides with the Southern division of warehouses, except that the former does not include the State of Oklahoma, which was separately tabulated.

The Central division for elevators, where used, included 12 States, which are the same as those for which elevators were separately tabulated, excluding Montana and Oklahoma.

No tabulations were made for the New England States on account of lack of replies.

Returns to most of the inquiries were also tabulated for each of the eight types of houses discussed in the preceding section, i. e., commercial, cooperative, mill, and maltster line, and individual cooperative, mill, maltster, and independent houses. In some cases warehouses and elevators were tabulated together and in other instances. separately. In many cases, owing to the small number of warehouses reporting, the results for elevators alone were employed.

NUMBER OF HOUSES PER STATION.-Of the 9,906 houses returning the country elevator schedule, 9,219 reported the number of elevators and warehouses operating at their station. For the purposes of this report a station is defined as any point, town, or place where one or more elevators or warehouses are located. Although the house may be situated on a railway siding in the country, far away from any town or post office, nevertheless it constitutes a station. Inquiry 12 of the country elevator schedule (see Appendix 2) asked the names of all other mills and elevators at each station. From these data there was computed the number of elevators and warehouses per station and the total number of houses at all reporting stations,15 the latter by multiplying the number of stations reporting by the number of elevators, warehouses, and mills reported at each of such stations. Table 1 presents the result of this tabulation.

TABLE 1.-Number of elevators and warehouses at stations and proportion reporting to those reported.a

Attention is directed to the fact that the percentages in the various tables in this volume do not in all cases add to exactly 100 per cent.

Inquiry 12, Appendix 2.

Each mill being counted as one house and excluding those not replying to the inquiry. 9904-20-3

From this table it appears that the 9,219 elevators and warehouses answering this inquiry were located at 5,896 stations and that these 5,896 stations reported 13,916 elevators there located. In other words, approximately 66 per cent of the houses reported at all stations replied to the questionnaire. This fact is important, since it indicates the representative character of the returns.

The great bulk of the stations (nearly 5,000 out of 5,896) report three houses or less per station. A little less than one-third of the stations reporting are single-house stations and about another third have two houses. In the case of stations having more than two houses the number of stations reporting declines very sharply as the number of houses at the station increases. Less than 10 per cent of the total stations reporting have more than four houses and only seven stations report more than eight houses.

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF COUNTRY HOUSES.-Table 2 presents the geographical distribution of all elevators and warehouses making returns to the country elevator schedule. (Appendix 2, inquiry 2.)

TABLE 2.-Geographical distribution of all elevators and warehouses reporting and reported.

Section 6. Average distance between stations.

The following table 16 presents according to the number of houses at the station the average distance in miles to the nearest elevator or

16 This table was derived from the replies to the country elevator schedule by multiplying each distance to the nearest station-1, 2, 3, 4, 5 miles, etc.-by the number of times it appeared in the schedules, usually four, corresponding to the four directions, north, south, east, and west (Cf. Appendix 2), adding all the products and dividing the resultant total by the number of distances.

1.

2.

warehouse for all elevators and warehouses answering the Commission's inquiry upon this subject (Appendix 2, inquiry 12):

TABLE 3.-Average distance between stations distributed according to the number of elevators and warehouses at each station.

Number of elevators and warehouses at station.

Average distance in miles.

Number of elevators and warehouses at
station.

Average distance

in miles.

The significant fact of the foregoing table is the tendency for the average distance between stations to increase with the number of elevators at the station, a fact subsequently discussed in section 8 of this chapter.

Section 7. Average number of country houses per station.

From the replies to inquiry 12 it was also possible to compute the average and most frequently recurring numbers of elevators and warehouses at reporting stations. Table 4 presents the results of this tabulation.

TABLE 4.-Average and most frequently recurring number of elevators and warehouses per station in specified States and grand divisions.

The average number of elevators located at a station as ascertained from the returns to the schedule is 2.38; the average number of warehouses, 1.99; and the average number of both warehouses and elevators, 2.36. The most frequently recurring number of elevators at a station is 2; of warehouses, 1; and of both elevators and warehouses, 2. An examination of this table reveals the fact that the 7 more westerly of the 14 principal grain-producing States for which the figures were separately tabulated, i. e., Montana, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Minnesota, and the Dakotas, show the highest average number of elevators per station, while the 7 more easterly of these States, i. e., Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, show a considerably lower average number per station. In all the States in the former area the number of elevators at each station is either equal to or greater than the average of 2.38 for all elevators reporting, while in all the States in the latter area the average per station is considerably below this general average. Section 8. Causes of variations in number of houses per station.

AGE OF HOUSES.-The explanation of the variations in the number of elevators at local stations is to be found primarily in the age of the grain-producing territory with reference to various other factors in its development.

Elevators and warehouses to the number of 4,634 reported to the Commission the date of their construction (Appendix 2, inquiry 10). Except for those built prior to 1880 and subsequent to 1915, these houses were grouped together by five-year periods according to the reported date of construction. Those constructed prior to 1880 were placed in a single group on account of the small number reporting construction prior to that date. All construction reported as of 1915 or later was tabulated under the heading "1915 and after." The first of the country elevator schedules were sent out early in 1918 and the last a little before the middle of the year. The period covered, therefore, is, roughly, 1915 to 1917. On account of the date of the sources from which the country mailing list was made up, however, it can be accepted that probably not as full a proportion of 1917 construction is included as might have been the case if all such sources were of a date subsequent to that year. Table 5 compares the average number of elevators per station in different States with the relative age differences of elevators and warehouses as indicated by the period of their construction.

Appendix Table 1 presents the period of construction of elevators and warehouses (Appendix 2, inquiry 10) by States and grand divisions and may be consulted for details of elevator and warehouse development.