190 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



CHICAGO. 



Flour. — The receipts of flour were 2,955,197 barrels, a gaiu of 329,314 

 barrels, or 121 per cent., over 1875, and the shipmcuts 2,G3'i:,838, a gain 

 of 349,725, or 15 per cent. The city mills manufactured 271,074 barrels, 

 against 249,053 in 1875 ; they were kept running during the whole year 

 to nearly their full capacity. The city manufacture was confined mostly 

 to three establishments. The market was generally quiet, and fre- 

 quently dull. The wholesale trade, especially, was greatly reduced. 

 Formerly trade was not considered as very active unless transactions 

 involved the sale of 15,000 or 20,000 barrels per day. During 1876 few 

 days exceeded 4,000 barrels, while the average of the year was not over 

 3,000 barrels per day. Yet with this low average of the wholesale trade 

 the sales of 1S7G somewhat exceeded those of 1875. The decline in 

 wholesale transactions is duo to the growing disposition of bakers and 

 store-keepers to order direct from the mill and thus save one set of mid- 

 dlemen's profits. Much flour not handled by city operators was sent to 

 Chicago to gain the benefit of the excellent inspection laws there in 

 force. The increase in shipments i^revented any great accumulation of 

 stocks, and hence holders were not at any time under an undue pressure 

 to sell. The city mills disposed of their products chiefly in direct sales 

 to consumers or retail dealers. 



A great change has taken place in later years in the character of the 

 Chicago flour trade. The milling capacity of the Northw^est has greatly 

 increased. Formerly the country mills found it to their interest to send 

 their stocks to Chicago, where a steady demand existed for shipment to 

 the Eastern States and to Europe, but of later years they have estab- 

 lished direct relations with the markets of consumption in the East, and 

 now ship direct. The foreign export trade has been greatly afiected by 

 the improvements in handling grain by elevators, which have lessened 

 the expense of shipping raw grain. English millers now purchase 

 American wheat and largely mix it with cheaper wheats from South- 

 eastern Europe and Egypt, thereby producing a flour which meets the 

 great bulk of the home demand. The English mills have also exten- 

 sively introduced the " middlings purifier," which euables them to ex- 

 tract a larger amount of flour than formerly from the crushed grain. 

 This revival of the flour manufacture of England has especially curtailed 

 the foreign export from Chicago, shifting the demand from flour to 

 wheat. But the decline in shipments to the East and to Europe has 

 been partly made up by an increase in local consumption and in the sup- 

 ply of neighboring regions. The spring-wheat flour of the Northwest, 

 with its recent improvements in manufacture, is encroaching even ui)on 

 the winter flour of regions farther south, and successfully competing 

 with best white winter flour in all the leading markets of the country. 

 A considerable foreign trade in bagged flour has sprung up, embrac- 



