1 May, 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 339, 
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wheat and flour will oftén have to be stored, interest being lost on the capital 
so locked up; insurances, freights, &c., &c., all run away with money. So that 
it is advisable that the most minute information should be gained by any who 
propose to enter into flour-milling as a co-operative business. ‘ 
Under the heading “ Farmers and Flour-millers,” the Agricultural Gazette 
(Tasmania), re-publishes the following article from the Melbourne Leader :— 
THE WAGGA CO-OPERATIVE MILL. 
The great question of co-operation has so far been reduced to a practical 
system for the benefit of only two classes—the consumers on the one hand, and 
on the other the business agencies engaged in handling the results of creative 
energy on their way from the producers to the consumers. That the first and 
most important class of producers, the tillers of the soil, are the latest to avail 
themselves of the advantages of co-operation, as well as the most difficult to 
organise in the way of effective co-operative ‘effort, is mainly due to their 
exceptional position with respect to the necessarily isolated conditions imposed 
upon them by the nature of their occupation. Notwithstanding this, however, 
co-operation. among the farmers is now being seriously considered, the first 
practical start having been made by the wheat-growers of Victoria and Riverina 
in connection with the disposal of their grain, with the object of diverting from 
the pockets of a comparatively limited number of non-producing speculators 
the legitimate profit of their industry into those of the class to which it right- 
fully belongs. And now the question is being asked by the wheat-growers: 
Tf Go-operative action loyally carried out between us will be beneficial with 
respect to the handling of our wheat, why should we not go further, and obtain 
the increased profits connected with the conversion of the grain into flour? 
This raises two important points. Is flour-milling profitable, and if so, is flour- 
milling by co-operative organisation of the producers of the wheat practicable ? 
On the first point it is ascertained that the proprietary flour-millers have” 
constructed for their own guidance, presumably for private circulation, a 
manufacturing and marketing table, of which a copy has been obtained, and is 
herewith submitted for public information. 
Taking present prices of wheat, bran, and flour at Melbourne as an 
example, for the purpose of comparing them with the foregoing, it is seen 
that the millers on their own figures are obtaining profits by a levy alike upon 
the producer and the consumer. That is to say, the price of wheat at the 
present moment in Melbourne is 4s. 1d. per bushel, the price of bran and 
pollard from 9d. to 10d., say 93d. per bushel as an average, and the price of 
flour from £11 to £11 15s. per ton, say £11 10s. Subjecting these relative 
rates to the test of the table, it will be found that the corresponding price of 
flour should be £9 9s. 4d. per ton, showing an increase of £2 Os. Sd. per ton 
that the miller is receiving, which it should be further noted is over and above 
the sums of 20s. per ton for manufacturing, and the 10s. per ton clear profit 
already provided for within the tabulated price of £9 9s. 4d. per ton for 
flour. So much for the consumer’s side of the question; but then again it will 
be noted by reference to the table that the present price being received for flour 
yery nearly stands opposite a 5s. a bushel price for wheat. Instead of paying 
that rate, however, the miller is getting his wheat at 4s. 1d. per bushel, so that 
while the consumer is on the millers’ own showing being charged over £2 per 
ton extra on his flour, the farmer is being paid 9d. per bushel too little for his 
wheat. What this amounts to upon a bulk trade may be further illustrated by 
reference to the milling business of Victoria alone, whose home consumption 
represents about 105,000 tons of flour annually, or the product of, in round 
numbers, say, 5,250,000 bashels of wheat. The extra £2 per ton (over and 
above the 20s. per ton for manufacturing and 10s. per ton clear profit) being 
paid by the customer on this quantity of flour comes to £210,000, and the 
