Caption
Grain is one of the primary products of the Canadian prairies. Farmers bring their harvested crop to the elevator, where it is evaluated and classified by quality. The grain elevator is the marketplace for the farmer - it is where he sells his crop. He must decide when to bring the grain to the elevator, since the market price of grain that day determines how much he will receive.
In the 1800s, farmers hauled their grain to the elevator by horse and cart. Hundreds of grain elevators appeared on the prairie, spaced 4 to 6 miles apart, a reasonable distance to get to the elevator and back to his farm by nightfall. Railroads connected the elevators and gathered the grain to central terminals. Since the elevator represented the centre of commerce for the grain farmer, towns and villages grew around many of the elevators. Today, farmers can travel further with modern grain trucks, so the grain elevators, and the towns that sprung around them, are disappearing from the prairie landscape.
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