[Letterhead: Christian Community of Universal Brotherhood. Doukhobors in Canada] November 20th, 1908 St[ation] Verigin The letter to Brothers and Sisters from Peter Verigin Let me inform you Brothers and Sisters, the mill at the Station has been put in operation, so I advise you to bring oat for milling. We performed a test, from two bushels of oat one gets less than one bushel of groats, because oat is not fully grained and loses a lot of substance during roasting. You have probably noticed the taste of burnt grain in your grits, this is because before going into the milling machine oat is placed in the oven for roasting. There oat loses a lot of weight, and besides, all the glumes are burned away, so there is only pure grain in the groats. I have determined – for three bushels of oat the mill outputs one bushel of groats. From three bushels we can get a little extra for the mill’s attendant wages and for the steam engine maintenance. Starting from today the mill will be in operation for two months, and those who need groats can bring only one day’s harvest of oats, no more than two cartloads per village. Oat must be very clean. I advise you, if anyone has good clean wheat, you can also bring it to the mill. The best wheat must be kept for food and for sowing, and only if you still have good wheat after this you can bring it all to the mill. If the wheat is heavily frost-damaged, do not bring it. The price for wheat would be: for not damaged by frost at all – 70 cents per bushel, if it was slightly frosted – 60. All villages must make sure to bring as much wheat as possible, for the money for the wheat will help us to finance the moving to [British] Columbia in the spring. When a village brings wheat, the amount would be put down but money will not be given away, because the flour can be sold out only in the winter. The wheat by-products and heavily frost-damaged grain should be kept, to feed the cattle before selling in the spring. I wish you all the best from Our Lord Your brother in Christ Peter [PS] If some villages do not have wheat, let they help those who have a lot to deliver it.
