This table confirms, in general, the conclusions drawn from the preceding table with reference to the development of different types of country houses, but in addition renders it easier to trace the relative increase and decline in importance of these types since 1880. The most striking result shown is the sharp and uninterrupted decline in the relative numerical importance of the independent type of house. Of the elevators reported as constructed prior to 1880, the independent comprises above 62 per cent of the total. From this high point it has steadily declined in relative importance until just prior to 1915 it constituted only about 36 per cent of the total number of elevators and was even somewhat less important relatively as of the date of the returns.

Of equal, though perhaps not so striking interest, is the rise of the individual cooperative. Prior to 1895 the cooperatives at no time constituted as much as 10 per cent of the total number of elevators and warehouses of all types and such increases in the proportion of these houses as did occur were relatively very slight. From 1895 on. however, the proportion of individual cooperatives in the total country house construction reported has pronouncedly increased. Just prior to 1915 the individual cooperatives constituted close to 19 per cent of the total number of existing houses reporting and above 20 per cent at the date of the returns.

In relative numerical importance the commercial line houses underwent a comparatively steady increase until about 1904. These houses constituted 14.28 per cent of those reported prior to 1880, and 29.44 per cent in 1904. At this point the relative increase of this type apparently stopped and the figures indicate that since 1910 this type has undergone a slight, but perceptible, decline.

The relative numerical importance of mill line houses also appears to have reached its maximum about 1904. Since 1910 it seems to have remained about stationary. The individual mill, on the other hand, like the independents, seems to have undergone a comparatively steady decline throughout the period. Nearly 15 per cent of the existing elevators constructed prior to 1880 were of this type, while at the date of the return this type constituted something less than 6 per cent of the total reporting.21

Up to about 1904, according to these figures, the relative numerical importance of line houses of all types steadily increased, while the importance of the individual houses of all types steadily declined. This increase of the lines was due chiefly to the increase in the numerical importance of the commercial line type, but also to a considerable development of the mill line. The decline in the numerical importance of the individual house was due to a decline in both the independent and individual mill types, chiefly the former. The individual cooperatives were increasing relatively although very slowly during this period.

Since 1904 the relative importance of all lines and all individual houses has apparently remained about stationary, the lines at just below 39 per cent and the individual at just above 61 per cent of the total houses reporting. In the case of the lines this is due to the fact

It seems probable that the individual mill elevator has been unfavorably affected by the larger and larger scale of commercial flour milling, especially in the hard-wheat areas of the West and the decline in importance of the local milling industry. Commission's Report on Commercial Wheat Flour Milling.

See

that both the mill and commercial line types have remained almost stationary, a slight decrease in the commercial lines having been compensated by slight increases in the cooperatives and mill lines. In the case of the individual elevators the decline in numerical importance noted in the independents and mills prior to 1904 continued throughout the balance of the period, and the maintenance of the relative importance of individual houses as a whole has been due to the compensating growth of the cooperatives.

GROWTH AND DECLINE OF CONSOLIDATED TYPES.-Table 12 presents the relative growth and decline of different types of elevators and warehouses on the same basis as in the preceding section, all cooperatives, both line and individual, however, being consolidated as one type, and also all maltster and all mill houses.

Section 12. Geographical distribution of different types of elevators and warehouses.

EXTENT OF GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATIONS.-Appendix Table 2 indicates the distribution of elevators and warehouses separately and by types in specified States and grand divisions. This table reveals a wide discrepancy in the relative importance of different types of elevators in different States. For example, line elevators of all types in North Dakota compose 59.81 per cent, and all individual elevators 40.19 per cent of the total elevators reporting, while Missouri reports 21.05 per cent of the former and 78.95 per cent of the latter.

Similar contrasts appear in the distribution of different subtypes of line and individual elevators. In North Dakota, Montana, Nebraska, Minnesota, and South Dakota commercial line elevators constitute, respectively, 54.17 per cent, 49.90 per cent, 48.58 per cent, 46.42 per cent, and 43.37 per cent of the total elevators reported in each of these States, while this type of elevator comprised only 9.38 per cent, 10.96 per cent, and 13.60 per cent of all the elevators reported in the States of Kansas, Missouri, and Wisconsin, respectively. The proportion of mill line elevators to total elevators as between States ranges from 38.29 per cent in Oklahoma to less than 1 per cent in Iowa. Other States with very low percentages of mill line elevators are Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana, and South Dakota. The cooperative line elevators are unimportant, both absolutely and relatively speaking. The only State having an appreciable number of such elevators is Kansas, which reported 37 of such houses, or about 6 per cent of the total elevators reported in the State. Line elevators of maltsters appear only in three States-Ohio, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. In each of the first two States this type of elevator constitutes less than 1 per cent of the total elevators reported. Wisconsin, however, has nearly per cent of such elevators. In every State independent elevators are a type of considerable importance. In fact, the lowest percentages in any States are found in Montana and North Dakota, each reporting approximately 14 per cent of this type of elevator. All the other States show larger percentages than these, the highest being Michigan, with about 51 per cent. The individual cooperative elevator constitutes more than 20 per cent of all the elevators in each of the States of North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and Montana, but less than 8 per cent of those in Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Oklahoma.

9

Differences in the relative importance of individual mill elevators are likewise very noticeable as between certain States. Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Michigan report, respectively, 26.75, 14.96, 13.56, 13.16, and 12.45 per cent of such houses, while Iowa and North Dakota have only between 1 and 2 per cent. Individual elevators of maltsters appear only in Ohio and Wisconsin and are insignificant in number. Diagrams A to E present graphically the relative importance of the five principal types of elevators in the principal producing States.

As is

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF PRINCIPAL TYPES OF ELEVATORS.-An analysis of the distribution of types of elevators reveals the fact that the 14 principal grain-producing States fall into two more or less well-defined areas or divisions, the first being the line and cooperative area and the second the independent and mill area. The former includes Minnesota, Montana, North and South Dakota, and Nebraska. The first four of these States comprise the group frequently referred to in this report as the Northwestern States, a term commonly employed by the grain trade to designate this area. explained in a succeeding chapter, the commercial line elevator was one of the earliest, if not the first, type of country house to develop in this territory, and it seems to have maintained a numerical predominance ever since this early development, despite the growing importance of the cooperative type. The mill and independent area includes the balance of the 14 large grain-producing States which were separately tabulated, i. e., Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Kansas, and Missouri.

The following table presents the proportion of commercial line, independent, cooperative,22 and mill elevators which are reported in each of the 14 principal grain States. Maltster houses are disregarded on account of their numerical unimportance.

TABLE 13.-Proportions of commercial line, independent, individual, cooperative, and mill elevators in specified States.

Nebraska and the four States commonly known as the Northwest report percentages of commercial line and of individual cooperative elevators considerably above the average for all States and

Excluding the small number of cooperative lines reporting.