Cause of price differences.-The only years in which the Minneapolis price did not regularly exceed the price in Winnipeg were 1906 and 1907. In these years American production of flaxseed was still beyond domestic requirements, and prices in Minneapolis were on an export basis. A good deal of the exported seed was shipped on through bills of lading from the western ports of the Great Lakes. In the fiscal year ending June 30, 1906, 2,321,465 bushels of flaxseed, or 38 per cent of the total flaxseed exports were so billed, chiefly from Duluth, enabling the shippers to take advantage of the lower export rates. During the following year the amount exported directly from the Lake region was 3,131,348 bushels, or approximately one-half of the total exports. In the fiscal year ending June 30, 1908, 1,448,716 bushels, or one-third of the total flaxseed exports of the country were consigned directly from Duluth and Chicago. Clearly, the flaxseed of the Northwest was on an export basis during these years. In Canada, however, the great increase in production had not yet occurred, and exports were exceedingly small. During the Canadian fiscal years (ending Mar. 31) 1906, 1907, and 1908, the excess of the Winnipeg over the Minneapolis price permitted the importation of 1,373,611, 2,719,851, and 426,516 bushels, respectively, from the United States, notwithstanding the Canadian import duty of 10 cents a bushel. Thereafter, exports from Canada greatly increased, while the United States became essentially a flaxseed-importing country, and this is the apparent cause for the higher price obtaining at Minneapolis in the later years. From the producing sections of Canada, equal freight rates applied to Fort William and Port Arthur, Minneapolis, and Duluth. Beginning with the calendar year 1908, the monthly quotations of Minneapolis were in all cases higher than those of Winnipeg. After January, 1909, when large quantities of foreign flaxseed were moving to the United States, Minneapolis quotations exceeded the Winnipeg figures 94 times-40 times by 10 to 20 cents and 50 times by more than 20 cents. Most of the seed imported from Canada during 1910 and 1911 entered this country at Buffalo, apparently for the eastern oil mills. But after 1911 there was a fairly large and regular movement of Canadian flaxseed to the western ports. In the fiscal year ending June 30, 1912, 1,288,323 bushels entered the United States through ports of Lake Michigan and Lake Superior, and across the Minnesota border; in 1913, the amount was 1,214,477 bushels; in 1914, 2,184,940 bushels; in 1915, 1,724,005 bushels; and in 1916, 1,448,275 bushels. In all these years, except perhaps in 1913, the excess of the Minneapolis price was sufficient (allowing for the fact that the Canadian flaxseed was of a higher grade and worth more per bushel) to permit some importation from Fort William.12 And it is significant that the amount of flaxseed (474,633 bushels) which moved across the Minnesota border was far greater in 1913 than in previous or subsequent years. It came not from Fort William or Canadian Lake ports, but directly from the western Provinces. This movement permitted a saving of the cost of transporting flaxseed from Fort William to Minneapolis. The costs of transportation from the producing centers of Saskatchewan--the great flaxseed-producing Province to Fort William and Minneapolis are practically the same. It is obvious, therefore, that flaxseed might profitably be imported into Minnesota from points west of Fort William even though the spread between Minneapolis and Winnipeg quotations would not seem to be sufficiently wide to permit of a movement between the two. 12 In flaxseed, as in the case of wheat and oats, the disparity between the American and Canadian prices is widest during the winter season of closed lake navigation. Large-scale, truck-crop, and early potato production and markets.... 159 A local and seasonal trade__. 159 Exports---- 162 Imports and plant quarantines: Import trade prior to the plant-quarantine act of 1912_. 163 Shipments of early potatoes to, and late potatoes from, Canada______ 166 Canadian competition affects chiefly Maine, New York, and Michigan_ 166 TABLE 1.-International trade in potatoes, 1911-1913_ 2.-Production and foreign trade of the United States, 1891-1920-- 158 159 160 tination, 1910-1920 -- 162 5.-Imports of potatoes into the United States, by countries of 164 6.-Imports of potatoes for consumption; duties and revenue, 164 7.—Potato production in Canada, by Provinces, 1891, 1901, 1910– 1920__ 165 8.-Border trade in potatoes between the United States and Can- 167 TABLE 9.-Comparative productivity and cost of potatoes in the United 10.-Freight rates per bushel of potatoes (carload lots) from com- MAP 1.-World acreage in potatoes---- 2. Carload potato shipments in 1915_. Page. 157 160 172 |