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20 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Juny, 1902. 
build there a special grain wagon, which costs about £10, to do nothing but 
haul grain. The cost is not much, and many farmers find they can afford to 
get special grain wagons and put them away in the off season. But that is 
not what is recommended, for in America they build a box to suit the size of 
the bottom of their wagons. Suppose it is a 12-foot wagon, they build a box 
4 feet by 12 feet by 4 feet, and this will hold a lot of wheat. They take these 
boxes alongside the thresher, and the thresher pours the wheat straight into the 
box. The wheat itself is not handled. At the end of the box there is a 
sliding door, and by opening that trap you can arrange that the whole of the 
wheat will flow out and go in whatever direction the tarmer desires. If he has 
a little elevator of his own, and one can be erected for about £8, he has a few 
drays going and takes his wheat direct to it. One of these small elevators, 
costing the sum I have mentioned, can be worked by hand, or rather horse- 
power, and is preferably built at a little height, so that a horse and dray can be 
backed underneath it. When the time comes when he wants to bring the grain 
to market or to the railway station elevator, all he has to do is to open a trap. 
door at the bottom of his elevator, fill his box, and then close the trap. After- 
wards he can take away another load. He can go on like this for a week or a. 
month—the principle is the same whether it takes two or three hours or two or 
three weeks. The same saving in labour is effected every time. There is nothing 
in the elevator system to restrict a farmer adopting any means of carrying wheat. 
which he finds most convenient. He can carry it in bags or boxes. He can keep 
on handling bags, and the elevator system will not stop him from so doing. 
No one seems to have raised any difficulty in connection with the elevator 
itself, and I can assure you that you need not anticipate any trouble in the 
details of its working. With respect to appealing to the Government, I have 
always been one of those who do not like appealing to the Government for 
everything, but here, in the carriage of material on our railways, I regard the 
handling of grain in the most convenient form as a part of the system of rail- 
way carriage, and that the people who have control over the railways ought to 
provide facilities for handling grain as they do for handling anything else. I 
may remind you that five years ago, on behalf of the Government, when I was. 
a Minister, | told the Conference that the Government were prepared to do. 
something if the farmers only asked for it. Do not throw it back on the 
Government again without a request from yourselves that the thing should be 
done. One gentleman asked how the small farmer was to benefit from the 
system. We cannot provide for the man who only grows one bag of wheat or 
half-a-dozen bags, and we must not all stop behind for him, but I think there 
are few men who grow much less than 400 bushels in a season, and it is hardly 
fair that we should be called upon to make special provision for a man who- 
produces less than that. If there are such men, they should combine amongst 
themselves. The wayside elevator is a small elevator; it is one holding 30,000. 
bushels, and is divided into sixty bins. One farmer may hire room for 500 
bushels, or he may take a row of bins. These wayside elevators, however, are 
not intended to be storage elevators, the storage room of which is to be held by 
certain individuals for a whole season, and thereby keep everybody else out. 
The wheat is only to be there until such time as arrangements can be made to 
take it away, say, to the central elevator. For the wayside elevator there is no 
need to clean your grain. You can put it in as dirty as you like, but when it 
goes to the central elevator it is there thoroughly cleaned for you, graded, and 
weighed. It is from that central elevator that you get your ticket as to 
what quantity you have stored. Once your grain gets into the central 
elevator you never see it again. Some people have such an_ affection. 
for the particular grain they have seen growing in the field that they 
do not like to be separated from it, but once wheat gets into the large 
elevators it is graded by a recognised and competent person, and is then 
bulked in large bins. There is no longer a separate bin kept for each farmer. 
He gets in exchange a certificate showing he is the owner of a certain quantity 
of wheat of a certain class, which is like the old system of bond warrants. 
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