TH6 J0URNAI5 



LIBRARY 

 NEW YOkK 

 BOT>AMCaL 



OARDHN. 



OF 



Y^e department of Hgricufture 



VICTORIA 



Vol. VIII. Papt 9. 10th Septembep, 1910. 



HANDLING GRAIN IN BULK.* 



ir. G. McRobcrt, Boidigo. 



The question .of handling grain by a better and more economic system 

 than at present obtains not only in Victoria, but also in the Commonwealth, 

 is an imperative necessity. If we intend to settle, with a vigorous and 

 hardy population of wealth producers and real nation builders, also to 

 develop with the best results the hidden wealth lying untouched in our 

 almost limitless and unequalled agricultural areas ; if we intend to 

 successfully compete with other grain producing countries in the effort 

 to supply the human race with that important natural food product ; 

 we must adopt the bulk and elevator system of our competitors, which has 

 built up their immense trade and made them so successful in settling and 

 developing their agricultural lands, and by means of which they are leav- 

 ing us far behind, although we enjoy much better and indeed, unsurpassed 

 natural conditions of life. Again, there are local impelling influences 

 that are demanding better facilities, such as our great distance from the 

 markets of the old world, the increasing price of land, the coming dual 

 land tax of the State and Federal Governments, low yields per acre, the 

 increasing cost of all kinds of labour, with shorter hours in the harvest 

 field, and the annual loss on bags to hold each year's produce. All these 

 conditions at once reduce the benefit of our cheap system of harvesting, 

 as well as affecting and increasing the cost of production, and they can 

 only be met by a saving in handling the grain. 



Our chief competitors are Canada, United States, Argentina, and 

 Russia. All these countries handle and ship grain in bulk, using the eleva- 

 tor system. The United States have solved, and Canada is rapidly solving, 

 the question of settling their immense arable areas, under adverse condi- 

 tions unknown to us, by aiding the settler in every possible way, and 



* Pa]3er read at the Convention of the Victorian Chamher of Agriculture held at Ballarat. 

 10446. U 



