"The description of the process of the manufacture of flour so well given above, conveys no idea of the extent and magnitude of the milling structures, machinery, and buildings employed in the business. Many of the leading millers and millwrights have personally visited and studied the best mills in England, France, Hungary, and Germany, and are as familiar with their theory, methods, and construction as of their own, and no expense or labor has been spared in introducing the most approved features of the improvements in the foreign mills. Experimenting is constantly going on, and the path behind the successful millers is strewn with the wrecks of failures. A very large proportion of the machinery is imported, though the American machinists are fast outstripping their European rivals in the quality and efficiency of the machinery needed for the new mills constantly going up. "There are twenty-eight of these mills now constructed and at work, operating an equivalent of 412 runs of stone, consuming over sixteen million bushels of wheat, and manufacturing over three million barrels of flour annually. Their capacities range from 250 to 1,500 barrels of flour per day. Great as these capacities are, there is now one in process of construction, the Pillsbury A Mill, which at the beginning of the harvest of 1881 will have a capacity of 4,000 barrels daily. The Washburn A Mill, whose capacity is now 1,500 barrels, is being enlarged to make 8,500 barrels a day, and the Crown Roller Mill, owned by Christian Bros. & Co., is also being enlarged to produce 3,000 barrels a day. The largest mill in Europe has a daily capacity of but 2,800 barrels, and no European mill is fitted with the exquisite perfection of machinery and apparatus to be found in the mills of this city. "The buildings are mainly built of blue limestone, found so abundant in the quarries of this city, range and line work, and rest on the solid ledge. The earlier built mills are severely plain, but the newer ones are greatly improved by the taste of the architect, and are imposing and beautiful in appearance." DIRECT FOREIGN TRADE. The flour of Minneapolis, holding so high a rank in the markets of the world, is always in active demand, especially the best grades, and brings from $1.00 to $1.60 per barrel more than flour of the best qualities of southern, eastern, or foreign wheat. During the year nearly a million barrels were shipped direct to European and other foreign ports, on through bills of lading, and drawn for by banks here having special foreign exchange arrangements, at sight, on the day of shipment. This trade is constantly increasing, and the amount of flour handled by eastern commission men is decreasing in proportion. * * * * * Referring to the foregoing, the following letter from Mr. Geo. T. Smith to the editor of the _London Miller_ is of interest: