after the breaks are made, and here the miller who is in earnest to
master the gradual reduction system will find his greatest opportunities
for study and improvement. A few years back it was an axiom of the trade
that the condition of the millstone was the key to successful
milling. This was true because the subsequent process of bolting was
comparatively simple. Now the mere making of the breaks is a small
matter compared with the complex separations which come after. In
the foregoing programme we had five breaks or successive reductions.
Although this is better than a smaller number, I will here say that
it is not absolutely essential, for very good work is done with four
breaks. The mill for which this programme was made, including the
building, cost about $15,000, and is designed to make about sixty per
cent. of patent, thirty-five per cent. of baker's, and five per cent.
of low grade, results which are in advance of many larger and more
pretentious mills.

One difficulty in the way of adapting the gradual reduction system to
mills of very small capacity is that the various machines require to be
loaded to a certain degree in order to work at their best. It is only a
matter of short time when our milling inventors will design machinery
especially for small mills; in fact they are now doing it, and every
day brings it more within the power of the small miller to improve his
manner of milling. To show what can be done in this direction I will
briefly describe a mill of about ninety barrels maximum capacity per
twenty-four hours, which is as small as can be profitably worked. I will
premise this description by saying it is designed with a view to the
greatest economy of cost, the best trade of work, and to reduce the
amount of machinery and the handling of the stuff as much as possible.
This latter point is of much importance in any mill, either large or
small, no matter upon what system it is operated, for it takes power to