The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1904-01-03
5 MILLION BUSHELS
This Much Wheat Handled in
Wichita in 1903.
1900, O00BU. GROUND HERE
First Year of Wichita's I'M
portance as Grain Center

Nearly all me wheat received III TIE
city is handled Dy the joint railroad office
at Twenty-first street, and at the present
time there is a good deal held in cars on
the switches. Last week there was COM
plant Of wheat being stolen from the
cars and Dold s switches for several days
inside his enclosed yards, were filled with
cars of wheat shipped to the Watson
mills and which the mill was unable TO
unload The cars were put INSIDE the
Dold yards for protection. because it is
a rather unhealthy place there for thieves
to enter.
There is now stored in this city in the
elevators, mills and in cars, a quarter Of
q million bushels of wheat There is no
comparison with former years, because
this is the first year of Wichita's import
ance as a grain center since the days
when it used to be the biggest wagon
market for wheat in the world. That was
In the seventies when wheat was hauled
to market from Cowley Sumner, Harper
and Kingman counties
Mr. Nevling. of the Nevling elevator,
says that the elevators during this year
have handled eight million bushels of
wheat The Stevens-Scott elevator has
only been running a short time anu, while
1t is the second largest elevator in the
city. il has handled but little of this large
amount of grain. 1t will add to the show
ing for this year.
Speaking of the business of the mills
in this city for the past year, j. Z. How
ard, of the Union Mills, estimates that
the mills of the city during the past year
have ground in round numbers one and
one-half million bushels of wheat, two
thirds OF which was ground during the
last six months Of the year.
Mr.. Howard is very emphatic in his as
eeriton that what Wichita needs is more
mills. He said he was showing his faith
by his works and in addition to buying
out his partner in the Union Mills, he was
taking stock in the proposed big Nevling
mills which will certainly be built the
coming spring.
His reasons for wanting more mills is
that this city is in the center of the Kan
sas hard wheat belt and the material is
here for the mills to work on. He says
that some people may think that Wichita
IL gaining prominence as milling center,
but to show how insignificant it is in pro-
portion to the demand, he said that the
mills of this city could not grind the
wheat raised in Sedgwick county.
One is impressed with the vastness of
the wheat product in what may legiti-
mately be called Wichita's territory from
the statement of Mr.. Howard, that the
territory from which the millerS drew this
million and a half bushels of wheat TO
grind, raised last year over fifty million
bushels. This shows that there might be
several mills much larger than any now
In the city started here and then they
would be only able to grind a small por-
tion of the wheat raised in the territory
tributary to Wichita.
At present there is only two mills men
toned for next summer: the Randall mill
and the one spoken of above. The first
named will be large mill, but the latter
it IS understood will have a capacity of
only five hundred barrels a day. James
Gfimsley OF Viola, who is one of the
prominent farmers in that section, as well
a shipper of grain and stock, said the
other day that il was astounding to him
that a number of large mills were not |
built in Wichita. He could not see why |
this as a milling center should not be
SECOND only to Minneapolis.