by the Agricultural Organisation Society to which the societies are affiliated, but, in some cases, it is stated to have proved financially advantageous to the societies that have adopted it. Sale on a commission basis tends to be more remunerative for the individual member. 64. We are informed that where transactions are conducted on a commission basis, societies, as a rule, charge their members Ed. a quarter, or 1d. to 2d. a cwt. for selling grain, though in Wales, slightly higher charges appear to obtain. The charge of 1d. to 2d. a cwt. is less than the average charge made by merchants, but, in a general way, the societies claim to be more concerned with offering their members a good price than with the alternative of accumulating profits for subsequent distribution. 65. The country miller may be unable to take the whole of a society's output of first-quality wheat, and outlets have to be sought at the port-mills. Hence a number of societies send their milling wheat to the mills of the Co-operative Wholesale Society. This method of trading is stated to be actively developing, and inasmuch as the sole parties concerned are producers on the one hand, and industrial consumers on the other, it represents, as it were, the complete integration of the marketing and distributive processes. 66. Co-operative milling and baking under the auspices of producers does not appear to have been attempted in Great Britain, though in France, Italy, Switzerland and other Continental countries, co-operation has made considerable progress along these lines. Some Continental societies undertake cooperative milling, others, co-operative baking, while many combine both. The absence of co-operative development among farmers in this country in the manufacture of flour and bread may be due to the lack of the compelling circumstances which caused many Continental growers to resort to co-operation as a means of ensuring for the rural community an adequate return in bread for the wheat produced. There is also a natural tendency for rural communities to organise themselves more in their capacity as producers than as consumers. Nevertheless, the low wages at present being paid to agricultural labourers will doubtless lead many producers to consider earnestly the possibility of cheapening the bread supply in rural areas in this country. An indirect movement to that end is already discernible in the efforts which are being made in some parts to arrange for the production of cheaper bread by using all-English flour and also to eliminate distributive costs by arranging for the bulk delivery of bread to central points in the villages. We shall refer to these efforts at a later stage of this report. 67. The disposal of first-quality wheat direct to the mills, whether owned privately or by the Co-operative Wholesale Society, and of first-quality barley direct to the maltster or brewer, oats and second-quality wheat and barley being disposed of direct to consuming societies, is usually carried out by producers' co-operative societies on ordinary trading lines. Witnesses claim that, if capably managed, societies engaged in this trade may afford reasonable benefit to their members, as well as exert a beneficial influence upon local prices generally, and there are those who maintain that there is scope for its development. The amount of business transacted by the societies in this way is, at present, relatively small. 68. We note, in this connection, that a number of the existing societies lack the requisite plant for grading, cleaning and dressing cereals. This is particularly the case with regard to oats which, unless properly treated, cannot realise their full value in the market. If, for example, buyers cannot obtain well-clipped home-produced oats, they readily turn to imported varieties. The societies' markets for oats might be appreciably widened if they possessed the necessary plant. 69. Similarly, we have been impressed by the losses which farmers frequently sustain by selling their grain immediately after harvest in order to raise cash for various essential transactions, such as the purchase of stock for winter feeding. This causes a glut .on the market in the autumn, and farmers who press the sale of their produce at that time have as a result to take what has been described as a "terrible discount." Means should, if possible, be devised of averting this seasonal rush of homeproduced grain on to the market. So long as the credit-status of farmers as individuals is high, they should experience no difficulty, even in present circumstances, in arranging for any necessary overdraft to enable them to hold their wheat for a few months if they consider such a course desirable. The fact remains, however, that many farmers do not or cannot avail themselves of the customary commercial facilities for that purpose and orderly, systematic marketing is, therefore, out of the question. The problem is neither easy nor new. In Germany, before the war, a solution was sought in the erection of granaries by producers' co-operative societies which were heavily subsidised by the State as a measure of national insurance. The financial results were, however, unsatisfactory. Indeed, in many respects, granaries are not to be recommended as co-operative enterprises. Nevertheless, it has been suggested to us that if farmers' co-operative societies, or other organisations, possessed facilities for drying and storing the farmers' grain, then, by the issue to farmers of some such instruments as "warehouse receipts" for grain actually deposited, which would be authoritative and recognised by the Joint Stock Banks as collateral security for loans, the requisite elasticity would be introduced into the credit system of the country to enable producers to systematise and regulate the marketing of their cereal crops. The suggestion is not that co-operative granaries should be erected in all parts of the country, or that any attempt should be made to emulate the network of country elevators which, in wholly different circum x 20856 B stances, have been erected co-operatively by producers in some of the grain-exporting countries of the world, but that granaries should be established experimentally in one or two specialised grain-producing areas, such as the Eastern Counties, in order to test the utility and applicability to agriculture of an arrangement which is a common and well understood method of obtaining credit in the commercial world under modern trading conditions. We see considerable difficulties in the way of this proposal, however, and we advise the utmost caution. PART II-FLOUR. I. MILLING. 70. The milling of wheat is a highly technical process, the actual details of which it is not within our province to examine. Briefly, it consists in separating the floury kernels of the wheat berries from the branny husks and grinding them into a fine powder. The residue, in varying degrees of fineness, is used for stock-feeding and is known by local names, as bran, sharps, pollards, or middlings, which may be classed together under the general designation of wheat offals. 71. Normally, the yield in flour is from 67 to 75 per cent. by weight of the wheat milled. If a larger proportion of the inner husks of the wheat is included in the flour, the rate of extraction may be raised above 75 per cent. The percentage of extraction also varies with the size and development of the wheat berry and the thickness of the husk, with the proportion of extraneous matter, such as seeds and shrivelled grain, and with the moisture content of the wheat. British wheat usually contains from 18 to 20 per cent. of water, American and Australian about 12 per cent., and Indian and Canadian 10 to 12 per cent., although these percentages are subject to variation according to the season and to the length of time which has elapsed since the grain was threshed. For example, Manitoban wheat may contain 12 per cent. of moisture in one season and in another 15 per cent. Again, Indian wheat frequently contains no more than 9 per cent. of water at the beginning of the season, while later, after passing through the monsoon, it may contain as much as 12 per cent. 72. The wheat is cleaned before milling to remove impurities such as earth, straw, weed-seeds, &c. This is effected by screening and, in many cases, particularly as regards imported wheat, by actually washing it with water. Usually the miller then "conditions" the wheat, that is, he brings it into the physical state in which the husk most easily separates from the kernel. Conditioning involves modifying the water content. Thus in one case which was brought to our notice a sample of British wheat contained 19 per cent. of moisture before conditioning, and a sample of No. 1 Northern Manitoba wheat contained 13 per cent. After conditioning, the moisture content was 16.0 and 16.8 per cent. respectively, while the flour produced contained 15.4 and 15.6 per cent. respectively of moisture. 73. Apart from the proportion of flour that he is likely to obtain from the wheat he purchases, the miller is concerned with the quality and characteristics of the flour itself.. In the operation of milling, from 16 to 20 different grades of flour may be, and usually are, produced in a modern mill. These differ in their fineness and in the proportions of the different parts of the wheat berry that they contain. The miller knows his machines and his stocks. It is his business to know also the subtle differences in 66 colour and baking properties between these different grades of 74. In this country, it is usual to divide the mills into two kinds according to whether they are situated at the ports or inland. The division is necessarily arbitrary, as the characteristics of many of the mills at the smaller sea-coast towns differ little, if at all, from those of inland mills in producing districts. The port mills handle the bulk of the imported wheat and, hence, are responsible for an overwhelming proportion of the trade. We have been informed, for example, that about one-half of the total four requirements could be met from the four principal port-areas alone, namely (1) London; (2) Liverpool, with Birkenhead, Manchester and Ellesmere; (3) Hull and York; and (4) Bristol and Bristol Channel ports. The past half-century has sufficed to bring about this concentration of milling in the port-areas, and, with it, a corresponding decline in the number and relative importance of the inland mills. The port-mills are, therefore, of more recent origin and naturally are larger concerns than the country-mills. These latter originally handled mainly locally-produced grain, but since the introduction of strong wheats from overseas, which lend themselves to the manufacture of bread of a strength, colour, and flavour which the public has become accustomed to demand, the country miller, though buying as much native wheat as he possibly can, is bound to use sufficient quantities of imported wheat or imported flour to make his produce saleable in competition with that produced at the ports and despatched throughout the country for disposal. The port-mills use varying but, on the whole, relatively small quantities of native wheat, and in many cases, none at all. It is clear, however, that such native wheat as is used has to bear the cost of railway carriage from the producing-area. Apart from considerations of quality, |