TABLE 5.-Elevators in specified States constructed prior to specified dates in comparison with the average number per station. An examination of this table reveals the fact that the seven grain States of the Central West reporting the highest average number of elevators per station are, on the whole and measured by the reported period of construction, much more recent grain-producing territory than the seven States reporting a lower concentration of elevators at stations. Except in the case of Minnesota and Nebraska, the proportion of existing construction in the former area built prior to 1905 is consistently below the average of total elevator construction, while with one or two exceptions the proportion in every State in the latter territory is above this average. Prior to 1880 no State in the former area except Minnesota reported as much as 1 per cent of the total reported present construction and no construction whatsoever was reported for North Dakota, Montana, or Oklahoma. This last situation continued to be true of Oklahoma even as late as 1894 and of Montana until 1890. In the latter area, on the other hand, construction prior to 1880 ranged from about 2 per cent of the existing total in Missouri to as high as 11 per cent in Wisconsin. AGE OF TERRITORY.-In the earlier stages of agricultural development land is comparatively cheap and a one-crop system frequently prevails. Cultivation is extensive rather than intensive, and a given production is secured rather by cultivating a large number of acres than by more carefully cultivating smaller areas. As a result large farms tend to predominate, and the average acreage cultivated per farm is considerably greater than in older and more thickly settled regions, where land is more expensive and where intensive cultivation and especially mixed farming have developed. Cheap land, extensive cultivation, the one-crop system, and large farms in an agricultural territory tend to result in a relatively slow development of railway facilities, since the volume of traffic per square mile of area. is relatively low as compared with that in an area where the reverse of these conditions prevails. As already explained, the area comprising the 7 more westerly of the 14 principal grain States, i. e., Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, Montana, and the Dakotas, is a relatively younger grain-producing area than that including Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri. In the former area there is more extensive cultivation than in the latter, crops are less diversified, the farms are larger, and the railway net much less developed. As a result the average distance between stations is greater than in the States lying to the eastward, the territory from which each station draws is larger, and a larger number of elevators at the station is required to handle the volume of grain offered. This appears somewhat more clearly from the following table, which shows the average number of elevators per station in the principal producing States in comparison with the average distances between elevator stations, size of farms, and railway mileage per 100 square miles. TABLE 6.-Average number of elevators per station in principal grain-producing States as compared with average distances between elevator stations, acreage of improved land per farm, and railway mileage per 100 square miles. 1 Statistical Abstract, U. S., 1918, Tables 97-99, from data of Census of 1910. An examination of Table 6 shows that in the more westerly States of the central group, where the average number of elevators is greatest per local station, the average distance between houses is also greatest, while in the more easterly States with a lower concentration per station the average distance is considerably less. All the States in the former group show an average distance between stations above 9.62 miles, the average for all States and grand divisions ranging from 9.68 miles in Minnesota to 13.63 miles in Montana. In the latter group the average distance ranges from 6.85 miles in Illinois to 10.94 in Missouri. Wisconsin and Missouri alone report an average higher than the average for all States and grand divisions. SIZE OF FARMS.-The average acreage of all improved land on farms in the United States according to the census of 1910 17 was 75.2. 17 These figures are employed as being the latest available at the time of writing this report. All the States in the more westerly group of the central grain States report an acreage of improved land far in excess of this average, ranging from above 92 acres in Oklahoma to about 275 acres in North Dakota. Six out of the seven States in this region report an average acreage of improved land in excess of 120 acres. In the more easterly area, on the other hand, the acreage of improved land per farm ranges from about 62 acres in Michigan to slightly less than 136 in Iowa. Only four out of the seven States in this group, however, report an acreage in excess of the average and only two, Iowa and Illinois, an average in excess of 90 acres. RAILWAY DEVELOPMENT.-As also appears from Table 6, the average railway mileage per 100 square miles of territory in the United States is 8.54. In the 7 more westerly of the 14 central grain States, the railway mileage per 100 square miles is below this average, except in three States, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Minnesota, and ranges from as low as 3.32 in Montana to as high as 11.51 in Kansas. In the eastern group of States, on the other hand, the average State mileage is far above the general average in every case, and no State in this group reports an average railway mileage as low even as the highest average mileage reported by any one of the western group of States under discussion.18 CONCLUSION.-Summarizing, it may be stated that the higher average number of houses per station shown by the more westerly of the principal grain States-Montana, the Dakotas, Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma-and the lower average number in the more easterly group-Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and Missouri-is probably due primarily to differences in the degree of development of the two areas as grain-producing territory. Intensive cultivation and especially mixed farming in the eastern and older area, combined with its industrial development, has greatly expanded railway facilities. As a result of this great development of the railway net, the area served by a given mileage in the eastern territory has tended to decline. Since country houses must be located at points where transportation is available, the increase in such facilities renders possible the location of elevators and warehouses closer together than in areas less well supplied with transportation and where the average distance between stations is in consequence greater. As a result, therefore, there is less concentration of the elevators and warehouses at particular stations in the east, because the territory served by each station is relatively small as compared with areas less well developed in transportation facilities. In Minnesota and the most westerly of great grain-producing States of the Central West the reverse of the foregoing situation obtains. This area is, as indicated, a relatively new grain-producing territory as compared with the eastern group of States under discussion. Extensive cultivation of one or two crops is still largely prevalent and mixed farming is of comparatively small importance, at least in several of these States. Industrially this territory is also much less developed than the more easterly States, as, for example, Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio. In consequence, transportation facili 18 It is not, of course, intended to imply that the differences in the railway net in these two areas are alone due to differences in agricultural development; the industrial development as well is responsible, and in the eastern group is probably a more important factor. ties are comparatively underdeveloped, and the area served by a given mileage is much greater than in the eastern grain States, and the average distance between stations is higher. The result is a greater concentration of elevators at stations 15 in the more westerly group of the central grain-producing States. While the higher concentration of houses at stations in the western States of the central grain-producing territory is probably accounted for in the main by the foregoing explanation, it ought to be pointed out that the large development of cooperatives, at least in Minnesota, Montana, and the Dakotas, has probably tended to increase this concentration. In these States elevators were organized in no inconsiderable measure to combat the line companies, and one of these elevators is very likely to be found at a very large proportion of the stations where one or more line companies are operating. Section 9. Distribution of houses by types. BY SINGLE TYPES.-The principal characteristics of the eight different types of country elevators and warehouses, as well as the more important distinctions between types, have been discussed in section 4. The following table presents the number and percentage distrition of the 9,906 elevators and warehouses reporting to the Commission according to the type of house (Appendix 2, inquiry 9): TABLE 7.-Numbers and percentages of different types of elevators and ware houses in the United States. 1 Percentages in this and subsequent tables do not always add to 100 (see Ch. I, sec. 3). Line houses of all types, 4,398 in number, constitute 44.40 per cent of all houses reporting and all individual, 5,508 in number, 55.60 per cent. The great bulk of the line houses are of the commercial 19 Specific instances of the high degree of concentration in the territory under discussion are interesting. Some years ago there were at Eureka, S. Dak., 16 elevators. These elevators, however, drew grain from hundreds of miles of territory, and it is reported that it was not uncommon for them to handle from two to three million bushels of grain a year. Even to-day, Beach, N. Dak., has eight elevators which draw from very long distances. From the information obtained, it appears probable that the points showing the greatest concentration are located at the ends of branch lines. line type (3,509). This type is numerically the most important, composing over 35 per cent of all the elevators and warehouses reporting. The independent is the second in importance with above 32 per cent of the total houses reporting. The only other type of very considerable numerical importance is the individual cooperative. Houses of this class amount to nearly 18 per cent of the total. Mill line, individual mill, cooperative line, and line and individual maltster houses follow one another in importance in the order named. The distribution of elevators by types is in approximately the same proportion as the distribution of elevators and warehouses combined. The number of warehouses reporting is so small as compared with the number of elevators that, although the type distribution of the former varies greatly from the latter, it but slightly affects the combined figures. BY CONSOLIDATED TYPES.-As indicated in section 4, the eight types of houses may be consolidated into five from the standpoints of control and ownership and the general characteristics of the business, i. e., commercial line, independent, cooperative, mill, and maltster. The following statement presents the numbers and percentages of elevators and warehouses according to these five types: Section 10. Relative importance of cooperatives. DISTRIBUTION OF COOPERATIVES.-The foregoing tables indicate the present predominance of the commercial line and independent types of elevators and warehouses which until very recently have been by far the most important in the growth and development of country houses. For several reasons the importance of the cooperatives, however, should not be measured merely by the percentage relationship which the total number of such houses bears to the total houses reporting. The first of these reasons is the distribution of cooperative houses and the second is the volume of business handled by this type of house. A third consideration is the growing importance of the cooperative house relative to other types as indicated by the reported construction of houses. Although in practically every one of the large grain-producing States the cooperative houses are exceeded in number by either, or both, the commercial line and independent houses, the influence which is exerted by the first-mentioned type in determining the prices paid for grain at country points is probably greater than that of any other type of house. This is due to the fact that the distribution of the cooperatives is usually such that there is seldom to be found more |