22 ESSAYS ON WHEAT 



That the flour was not good, there can be no doubt. 

 Its evil quality was largely due to the lack of the neces- 

 sary conveniences for pursuing agricultural operations. 

 " In the whole colony," says Ross, " there was not to be 

 found either a smut-mill or fanning machine to clean 

 the grain, and but few barns to thresh it in, and still 

 fewer to dry it ; much, therefore, of the grain had, of 

 necessity, to be threshed on an ice-floor, in the open air, 

 during all weathers, and then ground in a frozen state, 

 and immediately packed in casks made of green wood, 

 furnished by the Company itself." With such a mode 

 of preparation, it was little wonder that the flour became 

 heated and sour, and made unpalatable bread. 



To improve the quality of the flour produced in the 

 colony. Governor Simpson resolved to discontinue buying 

 flour from the settlers and to buy wheat instead. The 

 wheat was then to be dried and milled under the direction 

 of the Hudson's Bay Company. The price of the grain 

 was fixed at 3s. Qd. per bushel, equivalent to lis. Qd. per 

 hundred weight, which had been considered by both par- 

 ties a fair price for the flour. At the next harvest, which 

 was below the average, the Company bought in from 8,000 

 to 10,000 bushels of wheat and kept it in their granaries 

 for the winter. Unfortunately these buildings were too 

 small, there was no space in which to shift the grain from 

 place to place, and it had to be heaped up often four 

 or five feet deep. The wheat had been bought by the 

 measured bushel, and all that had been offered, good, bad, 

 and indifferent, had been taken. Some of it had been 

 threshed in barns and some of it on ice-floors in the open ; 

 and it was by no means free either from moisture or smut. 

 On being left piled up in the granaries, the wheat naturally 

 heated and became almost baked together. The rest of 

 the story is best told in Eoss's own words : " Large quan- 



