420 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Ocr., 1899. 
General Notes. 
HANDLING WHEAT. 
Wuere wheat has to be handled in large quantities, the Americans have a very 
smart way of going about the business. The cheap carriage of wheat from the 
interior of the United States to the seaboard, along the many extensive water- 
ways which intersect the States, is attributable to this system as much as to the 
means. The wheat is shipped in bulk, not in bags. Wheat does not flow quite 
as easily as water, and does not quite find its level; but it is so mobile that it 
will flow freely down a slight declivity, and can be pumped up by buckets or by 
suction. It is this quality that has been seized upon, and forms the basis of 
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the eleyator system so much in yogue aeross the Atlantic. By this system the 
farmer conyeys his grain in bags or in bulk to the elevator. These are emptied 
into a weighing hopper, and from this hopper it flows to the elevator buckets or 
is taken to the storage bins. When ready to be shipped, the wheat flows by 
gravity through spouts into box cars or enclosed railway trucks with a special 
fitting to the doors for holding the grain. In this way 1,000 bushels can be 
loaded in five minutes. It is then conveyed by rail to the waterside. The 
doors are opened, and the grain is emptied by steam shovels, operated by two 
men, into a receptacle beneath the train. Then the wheat finds its way into 
the hold of a steamer or barge, and after being carried to the coast is re-trans-— 
ferred to other vessels by the bucket system or the suction pump. This method 
may sound involved, but it effects an enormous saving, despite the cost of 
elevator sheds and their mechanical fittings.—Farmer.and Stockbreeder. 
SISAL HEMP AT MACKAY, 
A FARMER in this district—My. Kadditz, of Mount Vince—has become bold 
enough to make a leap from the sugar-cane rut, and has begun to extensively 
plant Sisal Hemp. He has obtained three drayloads of young plants, and intends 
to plant as many as he can get in the district, which will be a good many tons. 
It is to be hoped that his example will stimulate others to plant, as the success 
of the venture will much depend upon the quantity that can be sent to market, 
for if a regular supply is not sent to London the dealers will not trouble about 
it. But Mr. Kadditz is looking at it from another point of view. He thinks, 
and possibly correctly, that Queensland can take all the ropes he can 
manutacture for some time tocome. He has not tried the Furerea (Mauritius 
Hemp) yet, but anyone wishing to start its cultivation can be supplied with 
plants by the thousand from the State Nursery. 
