report a higher average capacity than either type of mill elevators, though much below the individual cooperative, and the mills in turn show a considerably greater average capacity than the independent. Although there is by no means an exact correlation of capacity variations with the proportions of the elevators of these four types appearing in the individual States, there is yet sufficient to render plausible the view that these type variations in capacity account in large measure for the geographical variations. The foregoing table shows that all the 10 States, except South Dakota, Nebraska, and Oklahoma, reporting less than the average elevator capacity (25,527 bushels) also report a higher proportion of independent elevators than the average of independent elevators for the United States as a whole, and with the exception of Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota, a higher proportion of mill elevators. Excepting South Dakota and Nebraska, each of the same 10 States shows a percentage of commercial line elevators which is considerably below the average. In the four States, excepting Illinois, which report a higher than average elevator capacity, and in South Dakota, which is approximately average, the reverse of the foregoing situation obtains. Minnesota, Montana, and North and South Dakota all show a higher than average percentage of cooperatives, a very much higher than average percentage of commercial lines, and a lower than average percentage of independents and mills.

Thus, broadly speaking, the average capacity of elevators tends to be highest in those States in which the two types of elevators reporting the highest average capacities-i. e., individual cooperative and commercial line-are relatively most important, and lowest in those States in which the two types reporting the lowest average capacities-i. e., independents and mills-are relatively most important.

WAREHOUSES.-Of the 359 warehouses reporting their capacities, considerably more than half were located in the Mountain and Pacific division, the balance being distributed among the other divisions. There is a striking difference between the average capacity of the warehouses in the first division and those in other sections. These differences between sections seem to be due primarily to differences in the method of handling as between different sections. As has already been indicated (Ch. II, sec. 1), the Pacific coast warehouse is first of all a storage and secondarily a merchandising undertaking, the warehouse being used very largely for storage by the farmer, who holds his grain there until it is sold to the converter or exporter. Where houses are thus used chiefly for storage they must be larger than in those sections of the country where the warehouse is primarily engaged merely in buying and selling and stores only incidentally. Moreover, the coast is relatively lacking both in large organized markets and terminal storage capacity, and much more grain is held in the country warehouses than would probably be the case were the coast markets larger and terminal storage better developed.

Section 5. Average number of bins per house.

TYPE VARIATIONS OF ELEVATORS.-Appendix Table 4 presents the average number of bins reported by different types of elevators or

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warehouses in specified States and grand divisions. Since warehouses are either not binned at all or only to a limited extent, elevators and warehouses are separately considered.

The average number of bins in all reporting elevators is 10.33 and the average capacity of bins is 2,471 bushels. This latter average was computed by dividing the average capacity of all reporting elevators by the average number of bins reported, including both stock and work bins, the former of which are usually much larger than the latter. (Ch. III, sec. 1.)

There is a considerable variation in the average number of bins reported by elevators of different types, and the average of different types shows some tendency on the whole to fluctuate with the capacity of the elevator. The following table compares the average capacity of each of the five principal types of elevators with the average number of bins per elevator and average capacity of bins. The averages for elevators of the other three types are ignored for the reason that they are based upon too limited data to render the percentages of any significance.

TABLE 17.-Comparison of average capacity of specified types of elevators with average number of bins per elevator and average capacity of bins.

1 Including cooperative line and maltsters, both line and individual.

From this table it appears not only that the average number of bins tends to vary more or less directly with the average capacity of the type but also that the average bin capacity tends to vary directly with the elevator capacity and the number of bins. The variation in the number of bins and bin capacities as between the different types may probably be explained on the same grounds as the variations in capacity as between types discussed in section 3.

GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATIONS OF ELEVATORS.-The tendency of the average number of bins per elevator and capacity per bin to vary directly with the average capacity of elevators is considerably less characteristic of the figures of the individual States.

In the following table the average capacities of elevators in the 14 principal producing States are shown in comparison with the average number of bins per elevator and the average capacity per bin.

TABLE 18.-Comparison of average elevator capacity in specified States with average number of bins per elevator and average bin capacity.

WAREHOUSE VARIATIONS.-Warehouses are either not binned at all or else show a relatively small number of bins as compared with elevators. An examination of the figures contained in Appendix Table 4 shows that the average number of bins in the Mountain and Pacific division is only about 31, while the number of bins in the warehouses of the other three divisions is a little over 5 in the Southern and about 53 in both the Central and Middle Atlantic divisions.

In the Pacific Northwest, as previously explained, sack and not bulk handling is the rule. Where grain is sacked there is no such possibility of its becoming mixed with other grain as in bulk handling, always, of course, presuming that the sacks are identified as to contents and are separately piled. Such being the case, there exists little or no necessity for the use of bins in warehouses where the method of sack handling prevails. Sack-handling warehouses, therefore, as a rule have either no bins at all or else merely a few partitions. These facts presumably account for the small number of bins reported by the warehouses in the Mountain and Pacific divisions.

The information obtained indicates that there is no sack handling in the Central division and very little in the Southern and Middle Atlantic divisions. In these areas bulk handling largely prevails and the warehouses have in consequence frequently been binned. The average number of such bins per house, however, in each division is considerably below the average number of bins reported by elevators in the corresponding divisions. (Appendix Table 4.) In the case of the Middle Atlantic and Central divisions this may be due to the lower capacities of warehouses in these sections as compared with elevators (Table 15).

Section 6. Construction materials of elevators and warehouses.

CONSTRUCTION IN GENERAL.-The great majority of all the elevators and warehouses in the United States are constructed of wood. Of the 9,637 reporting their construction 7,447, or 77.28 per cent, are built of this material. The only other important type of construction reported is wood and metal, employed by 1,519 elevators and warehouses, or 15.76 per cent of the total. As tabulated, this latter type of construction included all "iron-clad" houses-i. e., those constructed of wood but covered with a metal sheathing such as corrugated iron; wooden elevators with metal roofs; those having wooden houses but metal tanks; and all other similar combinations. The material of construction employed by the balance of the country houses reporting-671, or 6.91 per cent of the total reporting-includes various combinations of wood with other materials, such as brick, concrete, stone, etc., and also straight concrete and steel construction. In no case did the number of houses reporting any one of these particular kinds of construction equal 2 per cent of the total answering the inquiry. The detailed figures of the construction material of elevators and warehouses in the various States and grand divisions will be found in Appendix Table 5.

PRESENT TENDENCIES.-The principal reason for the relatively high proportion of wooden elevators and warehouses in the United States has been apparently the lower cost of such construction. This is the explanation offered by the majority of those terminal market grain concerns interested in the operation of country elevators who were questioned in regard to this matter. Until comparatively recently, it is said, wood was the cheapest material obtainable, and for this reason was utilized for the great bulk of elevator and warehouse construction. Of late, however, the price of lumber has increased to such an extent as to bring the cost of this material more in line with the cost of other materials suitable for use in building country houses. The tendency of elevator construction now is away from the use of wood only and to the employment of other materials formerly more expensive. This latter trend in construction is indicated by the statistics of the reported period of elevator construction in comparison with the materials employed in four States selected at random for the purpose of testing this question, two (South Dakota and Kansas) from the territory west and two (Illinois and Indiana) from the territory east of the Mississippi River. These four States contained 1,490 elevators reporting both materials and period of construction. As only 4,372 elevators reported their period of construction, the 1,490 elevators located in these four States were deemed to be a large enough number and sufficiently well distributed fairly to represent the tendency in construction.

The following table presents the results of this tabulation for the four States in question:

TABLE 19.-Materials of which elevators were constructed in specified periods.

As is apparent from the table, more than three-fourths of the reported country elevator construction in each period prior to 1910 was of wood. Since 1910, however, according to the above figures, the proportion of wooden construction has declined to less than onehalf of the total, while the proportion of wood and metal in combination has increased to approximately twice its importance prior to that date, and concrete has developed from practically nothing to over 6 per cent of the total. The use of other materials, including wood in combination with various materials, has also greatly increased as compared with the preceding years.

The relative increase in the price of lumber would presumably affect the cost of elevator construction more seriously than it would the cost of ordinary building construction, owing to the manner in which elevators are built. As elsewhere indicated (sec. 1), the ordinary type of elevator is of cribbed construction; i. e., built by laying 2 by 4 inch or 2 by 6 inch lumber flat side down. This method of building, therefore, consumes a much larger number of board feet in a structure of any given size than would ordinary woodenbuilding construction. For this reason the advance that has taken place in the price of lumber has probably tended to increase the cost of wooden-elevator construction in comparison with other materials more than ordinary wooden construction.

An examination of the age of elevators shows that approximately 5 per cent of the elevators which replied to the Commission's schedule regarding this matter were built prior to 1885, over 9 per cent prior to 1890, about 15 per cent prior to 1895, and over 23 per cent prior to 1900. (Cf. Ch. II, sec. 11, and Table 9.) As regards a large proportion of these old elevators, there can be little or no doubt that wood was used in their construction, because it was relatively very cheap as compared with other materials.

In the case of the older elevators it was also no doubt frequently employed, because, owing to the comparative lack of development of the country, other materials were neither easily nor quickly obtainable, but had to be transported long distances, often at relatively high freight rates, and involved perhaps a delay of weeks or months in building. In fact, one large line operator in Minneapolis stated that his concern had employed lumber principally because of its ready availability.