The settler finds no difficulty in selling his wheat, as grain merchants and millers compete for it. Often sales are made before the crop is ripe. The large wheat merchants and shippers have their agents in every town, and these men visit the farms, inspect the grain, and make an offer according to the ruling market price. The local millers are also competing for what grain they want for local consumption. The grower is paid on delivery at the mill or the nearest railway station. If he prefers to do so he can store it with the buying firms, giving them the right to purchase when he is prepared to sell, or he can store on the farm. The export values of wheat per bushel for the last six years, have been:-- 1909 $1.00 1910 1.00 1911 0.84 1912 0.95 1913 0.84 1914 0.82 Wheat is bought and sold on what is known as the f.a.q. (fair average quality) system. Samples of wheat are taken from the various districts by the different Chambers of Commerce, and each State fixes its own f.a.q. standard. These samples are mixed together, and by careful testing on a patent scale it is ascertained what an Imperial bushel of weight actually weighs. The idea is to ascertain as equitably as possible what a fair average sample of the season's wheat should weigh. The standard varies a little in different years; it may be 61, 62, 64, or as low as 58 lbs. to the bushel. Whatever it is fixed at for the season that is the basis upon which all sales are made. If the market price for wheat, for instance, is $1.20 per bushel, it is for wheat up to the f.a.q. standard. Say the latter has been fixed at 62 lbs., the wheat must show that weight. Agents have what is called a chrondrometer for the purpose of testing the wheat. If it is below the f.a.q. standard, a lower price is given. This system has been devised to suit the export trade. Samples of the standard wheat are sent to markets abroad, and all cargoes are sold on that basis. When they arrive at the market abroad they must test up to the f.a.q. standard. This system has been in force in Australia for nearly half a century. It must be understood that this standard f.a.q. weight has nothing to do with the quantity for which the grower is paid. He is always paid on the Imperial bushel basis, 60 lbs. Whatever the standard may be, every 60 lbs. of wheat is a bushel. The f.a.q. weight is a standard for quality, not quantity.