Chapter II: Sphere of Government (8)

One of the largest and most complete grain elevators or warehouses in
the world belongs to the Canadian Northern Railway Company, and was
erected at Port Arthur, Canada, in 1901-1904. It has a total storage
capacity of 7,000,000 bushels, or 875,000 qrs. of 480 lb. The range of
buildings and bins forms an oblong, and consists of two storage
houses, B and C, placed between two working or receiving houses A and
D (fig. 1). The receiving houses are fed by railway sidings. House A,
for example, has two sidings, one running through it and the other
beside it. Each siding serves five receiving pits, and a receiving
elevator of 10,000 lb. capacity per minute, or 60,000 bushels per
hour, can draw grain from either of two pits. Five elevators of 12,000
bushels per hour on the other side of the house serve five warehouse
separators, and all the grain received or discharged is weighed, there
being ten sets of automatic scales in the upper part of the house,
known as the cupola. The hopper of each weigher can take a charge of
1400 bushels (84,000 lb.). Grain can be conveyed either vertically or
horizontally to any part of the house, into any of the bins in the
annex B, or into any truck or lake steamer. This house is constructed
of timber and roofed with corrugated iron. The conveyor belts are 36
in. wide; those at the top of the house are provided with throw-off
carriages. The dust from the cleaning machinery is carefully collected
and spouted to the furnace under the boiler house, where it is
consumed. The cylindrical silo bins in the storage houses consist of
hollow tiles of burned clay which, it is claimed, are fire-proof. The
tiles are laid on end and are about 12 in. by 12 in. and from 4 in. to
6 in. in thickness according to the size of the bin. Each alternate
course consists of grooved blocks of channel tile forming a continuous
groove or belt round the bin. This groove receives a steel band acting
as a tension member and resisting the lateral pressure of the grain.
The steel bands once in position, the groove is completely filled with
cement grout by which the steel is encased and protected. Usually the
bottoms of the bins are furnished with self-discharging hoppers of
weak cinder or gravel concrete finished with cement mortar. For the
foundation or supporting floor reinforced concrete is frequently used.
The tiles already described are faced with tiles 1/2 to 1 in. thick,
which are laid solid in cement mortar covering the whole exterior of
the bin. Any damage to the facing tiles can easily be repaired since
they can be removed and replaced without affecting the main bin walls.
It is claimed that these facers constitute the best possible
protection against fire. A steel framework, covered with tiles, crowns
these circular bins and contains the conveyors and spouts which are
used to fill the bins. Five tunnels in the concrete bedding that
supports the bins carry the belt conveyors which bring back the grain
to the working house for cleaning or shipment. There are altogether in
each of the storage houses 80 circular bins, each 21 ft. in diameter,
and so grouped as to form 63 smaller interspace bins, or 143 bins in
all. Each bin will store grain in a column 85 ft. deep, and the whole
group has a capacity of 2,500,000 bushels. These bins were all
constructed by the Barnett & Record Company of Minneapolis, Minnesota,
U.S.A., in accordance with the Johnson & Record patent system of
fire-proof tile grain storage construction. In case one of the working
houses is attacked by fire the fire-proof storage houses protect not
only their own contents but also the other working house, and in the
event of its disablement or destruction the remaining one can be
easily connected with both the storage houses and handle their
contents.

Barrow-in-Furness.

Circular tank silos have not been extensively adopted in Great
Britain, but a typical silo tank installation exists at the Walmsley &
Smith flour mills which stand beside the Devonshire dock at
Barrow-in-Furness. There four circular bins, built of riveted steel
plates, stand in a group on a quadrangle close to the mill warehouse.
A covered gantry, through which passes a band conveyor, runs from the
mill warehouse to the working silo house which stands in the central
space amid the four steel tanks. The tanks are 70 ft. high, with a
diameter of 45 ft., and rest on foundations of concrete and steel.
Each has a separate conical roof and they are flat-bottomed, the grain
resting directly on the steel and concrete foundation bed. As the load
of the full tank is very heavy its even distribution on the bed is
considered a point of importance. Each tank can hold about 2500 tons
of wheat, which gives a total storage capacity for the four bins of
over 45,000 qrs. of 480 lb. Attached to the mill warehouse is a skip
elevator with a discharging capacity of 75 tons an hour. The grain is
cleared by this elevator from the hold or holds of the vessel to be
unloaded, and is delivered to the basement of the warehouse. Thence it
is elevated to an upper storey and passed through an automatic weigher
capable of taking a charge of 1 ton. From the weighing machine it can
be taken, with or without a preliminary cleaning, to any floor of the
warehouse, which has a total storing capacity of 8000 tons, or it can
be carried by the band conveyor through the gantry to the working
house of the silo installation and distributed to any one of the four
tank silos. There is also a connexion by a band conveyor running
through a covered gantry into the mill, which stands immediately in
the rear. It is perfectly easy to turn over the contents of any tank
into any other tank. The whole intake and wheat handling plant is
moved by two electro-motors of 35 H.P. each, one installed in the
warehouse and the other in the silo working house. Steel silo tanks
have the advantage of storing a heavy stock of wheat at comparatively
small capital outlay. On an average an ordinary silo bin will not hold
more than 500 to 1000 qrs., but each of the bins at Barrow will
contain 2500 tons or over 1100 qrs. The steel construction also
reduces the risk of fire and consequently lessens the fire premium.

Liverpool.

The important granaries at the Liverpool docks date from 1868, but
have since been brought up to modern requirements. The warehouses on
the Waterloo docks have an aggregate storage area of 11-3/4 acres,
while the sister warehouses on the Birkenhead side, which stand on the
margin of the great float, have an area of 11 acres. The total
capacity of these warehouses is about 200,000 qrs.

Manchester.

The grain warehouse of the Manchester docks at Trafford wharf is
locally known as the grain elevator, because it was built to a great
extent on the model of an American elevator. Some of the mechanical
equipment was supplied by a Chicago firm. The total capacity is
1,500,000 bushels or 40,000 tons of grain, which is stored in 226
separate bins. The granary proper stands about 340 ft. from the side
of the dock, but is directly connected with the receiving tower, which
rises at the water's edge, by a band conveyor protected by a gantry.
The main building is 448 ft. long by 80 ft. wide; the whole of the
superstructure was constructed of wood with an external casing of
brickwork and tiles. The receiving tower is fitted with a bucket
elevator capable, within fairly wide limits, of adjustment to the
level of the hold to be unloaded. The elevator has the large unloading
capacity of 350 tons per hour, assuming it to be working in a full
hold. It is supplemented by a pneumatic elevator (Duckham system)
which can raise 200 tons per hour and is used chiefly in dealing with
parcels of grain or in clearing grain out of holds which the ordinary
elevator cannot reach. The power required to work the large elevator
as well as the various band conveyors is supplied by two sets of
horizontal Corliss compound engines of 500 H.P. jointly, which are fed
by two Galloway boilers working at 100 lb. pressure. The pneumatic
elevator is driven by two sets of triple expansion vertical engines of
600 H.P. fed by three boilers working at a pressure of 160 lb. The
grain received in the tower is automatically weighed. From the
receiving tower the grain is conveyed into the warehouse where it is
at once elevated to the top of a central tower, and is thence
distributed to any of the bins by band conveyors in the usual way. The
mechanical equipment of this warehouse is very complete, and the
following several operations can be simultaneously effected:
discharging grain from vessels in the dock at the rate of 350 tons
per hour; weighing in the tower; conveying grain into the warehouse
and distributing it into any of the 226 bins; moving grain from bin to
bin either for aerating or delivery, and simultaneously weighing in
bulk at the rate of 500 tons per hour; sacking grain, weighing and
loading the sacks into 40 railway trucks and 10 carts simultaneously;
loading grain from the warehouse into barges or coasting craft at the
rate of 150 tons per hour in bulk or of 250 sacks per hour. This
warehouse is equipped with a dryer of American construction, which can
deal with 50 tons of damp grain at one time, and is connected with the
whole bin system so that grain can be readily moved from any bin to
the dryer or conversely.

London.

A grain warehouse at the Victoria docks, London, belonging to the
London and India Docks Company (fig. 2) has a storing capacity of
about 25,000 qrs. or 200,000 bushels. It is over 100 ft. high, and is
built on the American plan of interlaced timbers resting on iron
columns. The walls are externally cased with steel plates. The grain
is stored in 56 silos, most of which are about 10 ft. square by 50 ft.
deep. The intake plant has a capacity of 100 tons of wheat an hour,
and includes six automatic grain scales, each of which can weigh off
one sack at a time. The main delivery floor of the warehouse is at a
convenient height above the ground level. Portable automatic weighing
machines can be placed under any bin. The whole of the plant is driven
by electric motors, one being allotted to each machine.

The transit silos of the London Grain Elevator Company, also at the
Victoria docks, consist of four complete and independent installations
standing on three tongues of land which project into the water (figs.
2 and 3). Each silo house is furnished with eight bins, each of which,
12 ft. square by 80 ft. deep, has a capacity of 1000 qrs. of grain. A
kind of well in the middle of each silo house contains the necessary
elevators, staircases, &c. The silo bins in each granary are erected
on a massive cast iron tank forming a sort of cellar, which rests on a
concrete foundation 6 ft. thick. The base of the tank is 30 ft. below
the water level. The silos are formed of wooden battens nailed one on
top of the other, the pieces interlacing. Rolled steel girders resting
on cast iron columns support the silos. To ensure a clean discharge
the hopper bottoms were designed so as to avoid joints and thus to be
free from rivets or similar protuberances. The exterior of each silo
house is covered with corrugated iron, and the same material is used
for the roofing. No conveyors serve the silo bins, as the elevators
which rise above the tops of the silos can feed any one of them by
gravity. There are three delivery elevators to each granary, one with
a capacity of 120 tons and the other two of 100 tons each an hour.
Each silo house is served by a large elevator with a capacity of 120
tons per hour, which discharges into the elevator well inside the
house. The delivery elevators discharge into a receiving shed in which
there is a large hopper feeding six automatic weighing machines. Each
charge as it is weighed empties itself automatically into sacks, which
are then ready for loading. Each pair of warehouses is provided with a
conveyor band 308 ft. long, used either for carrying sacks from the
weighing sheds to railway trucks or for carrying grain in bulk to
barges or trucks. Each silo house has an identical mechanical
equipment apart from the delivery band it shares with its fellow
warehouse. All operations in connexion with the silo houses are
effected under cover. The silos are normally fed by a fleet of
twenty-six of Philip's patent self-discharging lighters. These craft
are hopper-bottomed and fitted with band conveyors of the ordinary
type, running between the double keelson of the lighter and delivering
into an elevator erected at the stern of the lighter. By this means
little trimming is required after the barge, which holds about 200
tons of grain, has been cleared. Ocean steamers of such draft as to
preclude their entry into any of the up river docks are cleared at
Tilbury by these lighters. It is said that grain loaded at Tilbury
into these lighters can be delivered from the transit silos to railway
trucks or barges in about six hours. The total storage capacity of the
silos amounts to 32,000 qrs. The motive power is furnished by 14 gas
engines of a total capacity of 366 H.P.

Rumania.

Two of the largest granaries on the continent of Europe are situated
at the mouth of the Danube, at Braila and Galatz, in Rumania, and
serve for both the reception and discharge of grain. At the edge of
the quay on which these warehouses are built there are rails with a
gauge of 11-1/2 ft., upon which run two mechanical loading and
unloading appliances. The first consists of a telescopic elevator
which raises the grain and delivers it to one of the two band
conveyors at the head of the apparatus. Each of these bands feeds
automatic weighing machines with an hourly capacity of 75 tons. From
these weighers the grain is either discharged through a manhole in the
ground to a band conveyor running in a tunnel parallel to the quay
wall, or it is raised by a second elevator (part of the same unloading
apparatus), set at an inclined angle, which delivers at a sufficient
height to load railway trucks on the siding running parallel to the
quay. A turning gear is provided so as to reverse, if required, the
operation of the whole apparatus, that the portion overhanging the
water can be turned to the land side. The unloading capacity is 150
tons of grain per hour. If it be desired to load a ship the telescopic
elevator has only to be turned round and dipped into any one of 15
wells, which can be filled up with grain from the land side. The
capacity of each granary is 233,333 qrs.

Transit Silos of the London Grain Elevator Co. Ltd., Victoria Docks,
London.

A. Barge Elevators
B. Receiving Elevators
C. Silo Bins
D. Delivery Elevators
E. Weigh Houses
F. Automatic Scales
G. Sack, Band Gantry

Longitudinal Elevation looking towards Barge Elevators.

Cross Section through Transit Silos.]

Stuttgart.

Many large granaries have been built, in which grain is stored on open
floors, in bulk or in sacks. A notable instance is the warehouse of
the city of Stuttgart. This is a structure of seven floors, including
a basement and entresol. An engine house accommodates two gas engines
as well as an hydraulic installation for the lifts. The grain is
received by an elevator from the railway trucks, and is delivered to a
weighing machine from which it is carried by a second elevator to the
top storey, where it is fed to a band running the length of the
building. A system of pipes runs from floor to floor, and by means of
the band conveyor with its movable throw-off carriage grain can be
shot to any floor. A second band conveyor is installed in the entresol
floor, and serves to convey grain either to the elevator, if it is
desired to elevate it to the top floor, or to the loading shed. A
second elevator runs through the centre of the building, and is
provided with a spout by means of which grain can be delivered into
the hopper feeding the cleaning machine, whence the grain passes into
a second hopper under which is an automatic weigher; directly under
this weigher the grain is sacked.

Mannheim.

A good example of a grain warehouse on the combined silo bin and floor
storage system is afforded by the granary at Mannheim on the Rhine,
which has the storage capacity of 2100 tons. The building is 370 ft.
in length, 78 ft. wide and 78 ft. high, and by means of transverse
walls it is divided into three sections; of these one contains silos,
in another section grain is stored on open floors, while the third,
which is situated between the other two, is the grain-cleaning
department. This granary stands by the quay side, and a ship elevator
of great capacity, which serves the cleaning department, can rapidly
clear any ship or barge beneath. The central or screening house
section contains machinery specially designed for cleaning barley as
well as wheat. The barley plant has a capacity of 5 tons per hour.
There are four main elevators in this warehouse, while two more serve
the screen house. The usual band conveyors fitted with throw-off
carriages are provided, and are supplemented by an elaborate system of
pipes which receive grain from the elevators and bands and distribute
it at any required point. The plant is operated by electric motors. If
desired the floors of the non-silo section can be utilized for storing
other goods than grain, and to this end a lift with a capacity of 1
ton runs from the basement to the top storey. The combined capacity
of the elevators and conveyors is 100 tons of grain per hour. The
mechanical equipment is so complete that four distinct operations are
claimed as possible. A ship may be unloaded into silos or into the
granary floors, and may simultaneously be loaded either from silos or
floors with different kinds of grain. Again, a cargo may be discharged
either into silos or upon the floors, and simultaneously the grain may
be cleaned. Grain may also be cleared from a vessel, mixed with other
grain already received, and then distributed to any desired point.
With equal facility grain may be cleaned, blended with other
varieties, re-stored in any section of the granary, and transferred
from one ship to another.

Dortmund.

A granary with special features of interest, erected on the quay at
Dortmund, Germany, by a co-operative society, is built of brick on a
base of hewn stone, with beams and supports of timber. It is 78 ft.
high and consists of seven floors, including basement and attic. Here
again there are two sections, the larger being devoted to the storage
of grain in low bins, while the smaller section consists of an
ordinary silo house. Grain in sacks may be stored in the basement of
the larger section which has a capacity of 1675 tons as compared with
825 tons in the silo department. Thus the total storage capacity is
2500 tons. In the silo house the bins, constructed of planks nailed
one over the other, are of varying size and are capable of storing
grain to a depth of 42 to 47 ft. Some of the bins have been specially
adapted for receiving damp grain by being provided internally with
transverse wooden arms which form square or lozenge-shaped sections.
The object of this arrangement is to break up and aerate the stored
grain. The arms are of triangular section and are slightly hollowed at
the base so as to bring a current of air into direct contact with the
grain. The air can be warmed if necessary. The other and larger
section of the granary is provided with 105 bins of moderate height
arranged in groups of 21 on the five floors between the basement and
attic. On the intermediate floors and the bottom floor each bin lies
exactly under the bin above. Grain is not stored in these bins to a
greater depth than 5 ft. The bins are fitted with removable side
walls, and damp grain is only stored in certain bins aerated for half
the area of their side walls through a wire mesh. The arrangements for
distributing grain in this warehouse are very complete. The uncleaned
grain is taken by the receiving elevator, with a lifting capacity of
20 tons per hour, to a warehouse separator, whence it is passed
through an automatic weigher and is then either sacked or spouted to
the main elevator (capacity 25 tons per hour) and elevated to the
attic. From the head of this main elevator the grain can either be fed
to a bin in one or other of the main granary floors, or shot to one of
the bins in the silo house. In the attic the grain is carried by a
spout and belt conveyor to one or other of the turntables, as the
appliances may be termed, which serve to distribute through spouts the
grain to any one of the floor or silo bins. Alternatively, the grain
may be shot into the basement and there fed back into the main
elevator by a band conveyor. In this way the grain may be turned over
as often as it is deemed necessary. At the bottom of each bin are four
apertures connected by spouts, both with the bin below and with the
central vertical pipe which passes down through the centre of each
group of bins. To regulate the course of the grain from bin to bin or
from bin to central pipe, the connecting spouts are fitted with valves
of ingenious yet simple construction which deflect the grain in any
desired direction, so that the contents of two or more bins may be
blended, or grain may be transferred from a bin on one floor to a bin
on a lower floor, missing the bin on the floor between. The valves are
controlled by chains from the basement.

With reference to the floor bins used at Dortmund, it may be observed
that there are granaries built on a similar principle in the United
Kingdom. It is probable that bins of moderate height are more suitable
for storing grain containing a considerable amount of moisture than
deep silos, whether made of wood, ferro-concrete or other material.
For one thing floor bins of the Dortmund pattern can be more
effectually aerated than deep silos. German wheat has many
characteristics in common with British, and, especially in north
Germany, is not infrequently harvested in a more or less damp
condition. In the United Kingdom, Messrs Spencer & Co., of Melksham,
have erected several granaries on the floor-bin principle, and have
adopted an ingenious system of "telescopic" spouting, by means of
which grain may be discharged from one bin to another or at any
desired point. This spouting can be applied to bins either with level
floors or with hoppered bottoms, if they are arranged one above the
other on the different floors, and is so constructed that an opening
can be effected at certain points by simply sliding upwards a section
of the spout.

_National Granaries._--Wheat forms the staple food of a large proportion of the population of the British Isles, and of the total amount consumed about four-fifths is sea-borne. The stocks normally held in the country being limited, serious consequences might result from any interruption of the supply, such as might occur were Great Britain involved in war with a power or powers commanding a strong fleet. To meet this contingency it has been suggested that the State should establish granaries containing a national reserve of wheat for use in emergency, or should adopt measures calculated to induce merchants, millers, &c., to hold larger stocks than at present and to stimulate the production of home-grown wheat.

Amount of stocks.

Stocks of wheat (and of flour expressed in its equivalent weight of wheat) are held by merchants, millers and farmers. Merchants' stocks are kept in granaries at ports of importation and are known as first-hand stocks. Stocks of wheat and flour in the hands of millers and of flour held by bakers are termed second-hand stocks, while farmers' stocks only consist of native wheat. Periodical returns are generally made of first-hand or port stocks, nor should a wide margin of error be possible in the case of farmers' stocks, but second-hand stocks are more difficult to gauge. Since the last decade of the 19th century the storage capacity of British mills has considerably increased. As the number of small mills has diminished the capacity of the bigger ones has increased, and proportionately their warehousing accommodation has been enlarged. At the present time first-hand stocks tend to diminish because a larger proportion of millers' holdings are in mill granaries and silo houses. The immense preponderance of steamers over sailing vessels in the grain trade has also had the effect of greatly diminishing stocks. With his cargo or parcel on a steamer a corn merchant can tell almost to a day when it will be due. In fact foreign wheat owned by British merchants is to a great extent stored in foreign granaries in preference to British warehouses. The merchant's risk is thereby lessened to a certain extent. When his wheat has been brought into a British port, to send it farther afield means extra expense. But wheat in an American or Argentine elevator may be ordered wherever the best price can be obtained for it. Options or "futures," too, have helped to restrict the size of wheat stocks in the United Kingdom. A merchant buys a cargo of wheat on passage for arrival at a definite time, and, lest the market value of grain should have depreciated by the time it arrives, he sells an option against it. In this way he hedges his deal, the option serving as insurance against loss. This is why the British corn trade finds it less risky to limit purchases to bare needs, protecting itself by option deals, than to store large quantities which may depreciate and involve their owners in loss.

Varying estimates have been made of the number of weeks' supply of breadstuffs (wheat and flour) held by millers at various seasons of the year. A table compiled by the secretary of the National Association of British and Irish Millers from returns for 1902 made by 170 milling firms showed 4.7, 4.9, 4.9 and 5 weeks' supply at the end of March, June, September and December respectively. These 170 mills were said to represent 46% of the milling capacity of the United Kingdom, and claimed to have ground 12,000,000 qrs. out of 25,349,000 qrs. milled in 1902. These were obviously large mills; it is probable that the other mills would not have shown anything like such a proportion of stock of either raw or finished material. A fair estimate of the stocks normally held by millers and bakers throughout the United Kingdom would be about four weeks' supply. First-hand stocks vary considerably, but the limits are definite, ranging from 1,000,000 to 3,500,000 qrs., the latter being a high figure. The tendency is for first-hand stocks to decline, but two weeks' supply must be a minimum. Farmers' stocks necessarily vary with the size of the crop and the period of the year; they will range from 9 or 10 weeks on the 1st of September to a half week on the 1st of August. Taking all the stocks together, it is very exceptional for the stock of breadstuffs to fall below 7 weeks' supply. Between the cereal years 1893-1894 and 1903-1904, a period of 570 weeks, the stocks of all kinds fell below 7 weeks' supply in only 9 weeks; of these 9 weeks 7 were between the beginning of June and the end of August 1898. This was immediately after the Leiter collapse. In seven of these eleven years there is no instance of stocks falling below 8 weeks' supply. In 21 out of these 570 weeks and in 39 weeks during the same period stocks dropped below 7-1/2 and 8 weeks' supply respectively. Roughly speaking the stock of wheat available for bread-making varies from a two to four months' supply and is at times well above the latter figure.

National reserve.

The formation of a national reserve of wheat, to be held at the disposal of the state in case of urgent need during war, is beset by many practical difficulties. The father of the scheme was probably _The Miller_, a well-known trade journal. In March and April 1886 two articles appeared in that paper under the heading "Years of Plenty and State Granaries," in which it was urged that to meet the risk of hostile cruisers interrupting the supplies it would be desirable to lay up in granaries on British soil and under government control a stock of wheat sufficient for 12 or alternatively 6 months' consumption. This was to be national property, not to be touched except when the fortune of war sent up the price of wheat to a famine level or caused severe distress. The State holding this large stock--a year's supply of foreign grain would have meant at least 15,000,000 qrs., and have cost about L25,000,000 exclusive of warehousing--was in peace time to sell no wheat except when it became necessary to part with stock as a precautionary measure. In that case the wheat sold was to be replaced by the same amount of new grain. The idea was to provide the country with a supply of wheat until sufficient wheat-growing soil could be broken up to make it practically self-sufficing in respect of wheat. The original suggestion fell quite flat. Two years later Captain Warren, R.N., read a paper on "Great Britain's Corn Supplies in War," before the London Chamber of Commerce, and accepted national granaries as the only practicable safeguard against what appeared to him a great peril. The representatives of the shipping interest opposed the scheme, probably because it appeared to them likely to divert the public from insisting on an all-powerful navy. The corn trade opposed the project on account of its great practical difficulties. But constant contraction of the British wheat acreage kept the question alive, and during the earlier half of the 'nineties it was a favourite theme with agriculturists. Some influential members of parliament pressed the matter on the government, who, acting, no doubt, on the advice of their military and naval experts, refused either a royal commission or a departmental committee. While the then technical advisers of the government were divided on the advisability of establishing national granaries as a defensive measure, the balance of expert opinion was adverse to the scheme. Lord Wolseley, then commander-in-chief, publicly stigmatized the theory that Great Britain might in war be starved into submission as "unmitigated humbug."

Yerburgh committee.

In spite of official discouragement the agitation continued, and early in 1897 the council of the Central and Associated Chambers of Agriculture, at the suggestion to a great extent of Mr R. A. Yerburgh, M.P., nominated a committee to examine the question of national wheat stores. This committee held thirteen sittings and examined fifty-four witnesses. Its report, which was published (L. G. Newman & Co., 12 Finsbury Square, London, E.C.) with minutes of the evidence taken, practically recommended that a national reserve of wheat on the lines already sketched should be formed and administered by the State, and that the government should be strongly urged to obtain the appointment of a royal commission, comprising representatives of agriculture, the corn trade, shipping, and the army and navy, to conduct an exhaustive inquiry into the whole subject of the national food-supply in case of war. This recommendation was ultimately carried into effect, but not till nearly five years had elapsed. Of two schemes for national granaries put before the Yerburgh committee, one was formulated by Mr Seth Taylor, a London miller and corn merchant, who reckoned that a store of 10,000,000 qrs. of wheat might be accumulated at an average cost of 40s. per qr.--this was in the Leiter year of high prices--and distributed in six specially constructed granaries to be erected at London, Liverpool, Hull, Bristol, Glasgow and Dublin. The cost of the granaries was put at L7,500,000. Mr Taylor's scheme, all charges included, such as 2-1/2% interest on capital, cost of storage (at 6d. per qr.), and 2s. per qr. for cost of replacing wheat, involved an annual expenditure of L1,250,000. The Yerburgh committee also considered a proposal to stimulate the home supply of wheat by offering a bounty to farmers for every quarter of wheat grown. This proposal has taken different shapes; some have suggested that a bounty should be given on every acre of land covered with wheat, while others would only allow the bounty on wheat raised and kept in good condition up to a certain date, say the beginning of the following harvest. It is obvious that a bounty on the area of land covered by wheat, irrespective of yield, would be a premium on poor farming, and might divert to wheat-growing land unsuitable for that purpose. The suggestion to pay a bounty of say 3s. to 5s. per qr. for all wheat grown and stacked for a certain time stands on a different basis; it is conceivable that a bounty of 5s. might expand the British production of wheat from say 7,000,000 to 9,000,000 qrs., which would mean that a bounty of L2,250,000 per annum, plus costs of administration, had secured an extra home production of 2,000,000 qrs. Whether such a price would be worth paying is another matter; the Yerburgh committee's conclusion was decidedly in the negative. It has also been suggested that the State might subsidize millers to the extent of 2s. 6d. per sack of 280 lb. per annum on condition that each maintained a minimum supply of two months' flour. This may be taken to mean that for keeping a special stock of flour over and above his usual output a miller would be entitled to an annual subsidy of 2s. 6d. per sack. An extra stock of 10,000,000 sacks might be thus kept up at an annual cost of L1,250,000, plus the expenditure of administration, which would probably be heavy. With regard to this suggestion, it is very probable that a few large mills which have plenty of warehouse accommodation and depots all over the country would be ready to keep up a permanent extra stock of 100,000 sacks. Thus a mill of 10,000 sacks' capacity per week, which habitually maintains a total stock of 50,000 sacks, might bring up its stock to 150,000 sacks. Such a mill, being a good customer to railways, could get from them the storage it required for little or nothing. But the bulk of the mills have no such advantages. They have little or no spare warehousing room, and are not accustomed to keep any stock, sending their flour out almost as fast as it is milled. It is doubtful therefore if a bounty of 2s. 6d. per sack would have the desired effect of keeping up a stock of 10,000,000 sacks, sufficient for two to three months' bread consumption.

Royal commission, 1903-1905.

The controversy reached a climax in the royal commission appointed in 1903, to which was also referred the importation of raw material in war time. Its report appeared in 1905. To the question whether the unquestioned dependence of the United Kingdom on an uninterrupted supply of sea-borne breadstuffs renders it advisable or not to maintain at all times a six months' stock of wheat and flour, it returned no decided answer, or perhaps it would be more correct to say that the commission was hopelessly divided. The main report was distinctly optimistic so far as the liability of the country to harass and distress at the hands of a hostile naval power or combination of powers was concerned. But there were several dissentients, and there was hardly any portion of the report in chief which did not provoke some reservation or another. That a maritime war would cause freights and insurance to rise in a high degree was freely admitted, and it was also admitted that the price of bread must also rise very appreciably. But, provided the navy did not break down, the risk of starvation was dismissed. Therefore all the proposals for providing national granaries or inducing merchants and millers to carry bigger stocks were put aside as unpractical and unnecessary. The commission was, however, inclined to consider more favourably a suggestion for providing free storage for wheat at the expense of the State. The idea was that if the State would subsidize any large granary company to the extent of 6d. or 5d. per qr., grain now warehoused in foreign lands would be attracted to the British Isles. But on the whole the commission held that the main effect of the scheme would be to saddle the government with the rent of all grain stored in public warehouses in the United Kingdom without materially increasing stocks. The proposal to offer bounties to farmers to hold stocks for a longer period and to grow more wheat met with equally little favour.

To sum up the advantages of national granaries, assuming any sort of disaster to the navy, the possession of a reserve of even six months' wheat-supply in addition to ordinary stocks would prevent panic prices. On the other hand, the difficulties in the way of forming and administering such a reserve are very great. The world grows no great surplus of wheat, and to form a six months', much more a twelve months', stock would be the work of years. The government in buying up the wheat would have to go carefully if they would avoid sending up prices with a rush. They would have to buy dearly, and when they let go a certain amount of stock they would be bound to sell cheaply. A stock once formed might be held by the State with little or no disturbance of the corn market, although the existence of such an emergency stock would hardly encourage British farmers to grow more wheat. The cost of erecting, equipping and keeping in good order the necessary warehouses would be, probably, much heavier than the most liberal estimate hitherto made by advocates of national granaries. (G. F. Z.)

GRANBY, JOHN MANNERS, MARQUESS OF (1721-1770), British soldier, was the eldest son of the third duke of Rutland. He was born in 1721 and educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, and was returned as member of parliament for Grantham in 1741. Four years later he received a commission as colonel of a regiment raised by the Rutland interest in and about Leicester to assist in quelling the Highland revolt of 1745. This corps never got beyond Newcastle, but young Granby went to the front as a volunteer on the duke of Cumberland's staff, and saw active service in the last stages of the insurrection. Very soon his regiment was disbanded. He continued in parliament, combining with it military duties, making the campaign of Flanders (1747). Promoted major-general in 1755, three years later he was appointed colonel of the Royal Horse Guards (Blues). Meanwhile he had married the daughter of the duke of Somerset, and in 1754 had begun his parliamentary connexion with Cambridgeshire, for which county he sat until his death. The same year that saw Granby made colonel of the Blues, saw also the despatch of a considerable British contingent to Germany. Minden was Granby's first great battle. At the head of the Blues he was one of the cavalry leaders halted at the critical moment by Sackville, and when in consequence that officer was sent home in disgrace, Lieut.-General Lord Granby succeeded to the command of the British contingent in Ferdinand's army, having 32,000 men under his orders at the beginning of 1760. In the remaining campaigns of the Seven Years' War the English contingent was more conspicuous by its conduct than the Prussians themselves. On the 31st of July 1760 Granby brilliantly stormed Warburg at the head of the British cavalry, capturing 1500 men and ten pieces of artillery. A year later (15th of July 1761) the British defended the heights of Vellinghausen with what Ferdinand himself styled "indescribable bravery." In the last campaign, at Gravenstein und Wilhelmsthal, Homburg and Cassel, Granby's men bore the brunt of the fighting and earned the greatest share of the glory.

Returning to England in 1763 the marquess found himself the popular hero of the war. It is said that couriers awaited his arrival at all the home ports to offer him the choice of the Ordnance or the Horse Guards. His appointment to the Ordnance bore the date of the 1st of July 1763, and three years later he became commander-in-chief. In this position he was attacked by "Junius," and a heated discussion arose, as the writer had taken the greatest pains in assailing the most popular member of the Grafton ministry. In 1770 Granby, worn out by political and financial trouble, resigned all his offices, except the colonelcy of the Blues. He died at Scarborough on the 18th of October 1770. He had been made a privy councillor in 1760, lord lieutenant of Derbyshire in 1762, and LL.D. of Cambridge in 1769.

Two portraits of Granby were painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, one of
which is now in the National Gallery. His contemporary popularity is
indicated by the number of inns and public-houses which took his name
and had his portrait as sign-board.

GRAN CHACO, an extensive region in the heart of South America belonging to the La Plata basin, stretching from 20 deg. to 29 deg S. lat., and divided between the republics of Argentine, Bolivia and Paraguay, with a small district of south-western Matto Grosso (Brazil). Its area is estimated at from 250,000 to 425,000 sq. m., but the true Chaco region probably does not exceed 300,000 sq. m. The greater part is covered with marshes, lagoons and dense tropical jungle and forest, and is still unexplored. On its southern and western borders there are extensive tracts of open woodland, intermingled with grassy plains, while on the northern side in Bolivia are large areas of open country subject to inundations in the rainy season. In general terms the Gran Chaco may be described as a great plain sloping gently to the S.E., traversed in the same direction by two great rivers, the Pilcomayo and Bermejo, whose sluggish courses are not navigable because of sand-banks, barriers of overturned trees and floating vegetation, and confusing channels. This excludes that part of eastern Bolivia belonging to the Amazon basin, which is sometimes described as part of the Chaco. The greater part of its territory is occupied by nomadic tribes of Indians, some of whom are still unsubdued, while others, like the Matacos, are sometimes to be found on neighbouring sugar estates and estancias as labourers during the busy season. The forest wealth of the Chaco region is incalculable and apparently inexhaustible, consisting of a great variety of palms and valuable cabinet woods, building timber, &c. Its extensive tracts of "quebracho Colorado" (_Loxopterygium Lorentzii_) are of very great value because of its use in tanning leather. Both the wood and its extract are largely exported. Civilization is slowly gaining footholds in this region along the southern and eastern borders.

GRAND ALLIANCE, WAR OF THE (alternatively called the War of the League of Augsburg), the third[1] of the great aggressive wars waged by Louis XIV. of France against Spain, the Empire, Great Britain, Holland and other states. The two earlier wars, which are redeemed from oblivion by the fact that in them three great captains, Turenne, Conde and Montecucculi, played leading parts, are described in the article DUTCH WARS. In the third war the leading figures are: Henri de Montmorency-Boutteville, duke of Luxemburg, the former aide-de-camp of Conde and heir to his daring method of warfare; William of Orange, who had fought against both Conde and Luxemburg in the earlier wars, and was now king of England; Vauban, the founder of the sciences of fortification and siegecraft, and Catinat, the follower of Turenne's cautious and systematic strategy, who was the first commoner to receive high command in the army of Louis XIV. But as soldiers, these men--except Vauban--are overshadowed by the great figures of the preceding generation, and except for a half-dozen outstanding episodes, the war of 1689-97 was an affair of positions and manoeuvres.

It was within these years that the art and practice of war began to crystallize into the form called "linear" in its strategic and tactical aspect, and "cabinet-war" in its political and moral aspect. In the Dutch wars, and in the minor wars that preceded the formation of the League of Augsburg, there were still survivals of the loose organization, violence and wasteful barbarity typical of the Thirty Years' War; and even in the War of the Grand Alliance (in its earlier years) occasional brutalities and devastations showed that the old spirit died hard. But outrages that would have been borne in dumb misery in the old days now provoked loud indignation, and when the fierce Louvois disappeared from the scene it became generally understood that barbarity was impolitic, not only as alienating popular sympathies, but also as rendering operations a physical impossibility for want of supplies.

Character of the war.

Thus in 1700, so far from terrorizing the country people into submission, armies systematically conciliated them by paying cash and bringing trade into the country. Formerly, wars had been fought to compel a people to abjure their faith or to change sides in some personal or dynastic quarrel. But since 1648 this had no longer been the case. The Peace of Westphalia established the general relationship of kings, priests and peoples on a basis that was not really shaken until the French Revolution, and in the intervening hundred and forty years the peoples at large, except at the highest and gravest moments (as in Germany in 1689, France In 1709 and Prussia in 1757) held aloof from active participation in politics and war. This was the beginning of the theory that war was an affair of the regular forces only, and that intervention in it by the civil population was a punishable offence. Thus wars became the business of the professional soldiers in the king's own service, and the scarcity and costliness of these soldiers combined with the purely political character of the quarrels that arose to reduce a campaign from an "intense and passionate drama" to a humdrum affair, to which only rarely a few men of genius imparted some degree of vigour, and which in the main was an attempt to gain small ends by a small expenditure of force and with the minimum of risk. As between a prince and his subjects there were still quarrels that stirred the average man--the Dragonnades, for instance, or the English Revolution--but foreign wars were "a stronger form of diplomatic notes," as Clausewitz called them, and were waged with the object of adding a codicil to the treaty of peace that had closed the last incident.

Other causes contributed to stifle the former ardour of war. Campaigns were no longer conducted by armies of ten to thirty thousand men. Large regular armies had come into fashion, and, as Guibert points out, instead of small armies charged with grand operations we find grand armies charged with small operations. The average general, under the prevailing conditions of supply and armament, was not equal to the task of commanding such armies. Any real concentration of the great forces that Louis XIV. had created was therefore out of the question, and the field armies split into six or eight independent fractions, each charged with operations on a particular theatre of war. From such a policy nothing remotely resembling the crushing of a great power could be expected to be gained. The one tangible asset, in view of future peace negotiations, was therefore a fortress, and it was on the preservation or capture of fortresses that operations in all these wars chiefly turned. The idea of the decisive battle for its own sake, as a settlement of the quarrel, was far distant; for, strictly speaking, there was no quarrel, and to use up highly trained and exceedingly expensive soldiers in gaining by brute force an advantage that might equally well be obtained by chicanery was regarded as foolish.

The fortress was, moreover, of immediate as well as contingent value to a state at war. A century of constant warfare had impoverished middle Europe, and armies had to spread over a large area if they desired to "live on the country." This was dangerous in the face of the enemy (cf. the Peninsular War), and it was also uneconomical. The only way to prevent the country people from sending their produce into the fortresses for safety was to announce beforehand that cash would be paid, at a high rate, for whatever the army needed. But even promises rarely brought this about, and to live at all, whether on supplies brought up from the home country and stored in magazines (which had to be guarded) or on local resources, an army had as a rule to maintain or to capture a large fortress. Sieges, therefore, and manoeuvres are the features of this form of war, wherein armies progressed not with the giant strides of modern war, but in a succession of short hops from one foothold to the next. This was the procedure of the average commander, and even when a more intense spirit of conflict was evoked by the Luxemburgs and Marlboroughs it was but momentary and spasmodic.

The general character of the war being borne in mind, nine-tenths of its marches and manoeuvres can be almost "taken as read"; the remaining tenth, the exceptional and abnormal part of it, alone possesses an interest for modern readers.

In pursuance of a new aggressive policy in Germany Louis XIV. sent his troops, as a diplomatic menace rather than for conquest, into that country in the autumn of 1688. Some of their raiding parties plundered the country as far south as Augsburg, for the political intent of their advance suggested terrorism rather than conciliation as the best method. The league of Augsburg at once took up the challenge, and the addition of new members (Treaty of Vienna, May 1689) converted it into the "Grand Alliance" of Spain, Holland, Sweden, Savoy and certain Italian states, Great Britain, the emperor, the elector of Brandenburg, &c.

"Those who condemned the king for raising up so many enemies, admired him for having so fully prepared to defend himself and even to forestall them," says Voltaire. Louvois had in fact completed the work of organizing the French army on a regular and permanent basis, and had made it not merely the best, but also by far the most numerous in Europe, for Louis disposed in 1688 of no fewer than 375,000 soldiers and 60,000 sailors. The infantry was uniformed and drilled, and the socket bayonet and the flint-lock musket had been introduced. The only relic of the old armament was the pike, which was retained for one-quarter of the foot, though it had been discarded by the Imperialists in the course of the Turkish wars described below. The first artillery regiment was created in 1684, to replace the former semi-civilian organization by a body of artillerymen susceptible of uniform training and amenable to discipline and orders.

Devastation of the Palatinate, 1689.