Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1883-09-20
CHEATING IN GRAIN SHIPPING.
The Practice OF "PIuRgingv as Described
by Western DenVer.

The Practice OF "PIuRginR" as Described
by n Western Dealer.
Hearing something Of method Of
cheating known in grain circles as
plugging" a Kansas City Journ1l
reporter made inquiries at the board Of
trade, without much satisfaction until
he called upon the grain inspector,
Mr.. J. Mclean, and inquired if the
"plug" were damaging the wheat
much this year.
"Well. I should rather think not.
What do you know about plug?"
Nothing; that is what am here
for, to find out what you know about
them. Are they very plenty?"
"The wheat pluggers are about as
plenty as the men who always get the
best fruit on top Of the half-bushel, the
good eggs in the top of the box, tie
best hay on the outside Of the load,
and so on. You see, sonny, we spend
millions of dollars every year to con
vert the heather in foreign lands, while
the heather at home are cheating their
neighbors out of their boots. The
word plug has reference to way dis
honest men have Of cheating grain
shippers. They load the bottom of the
car with chaff or bran or low gra1e
grain, and put good grain in on top of
it, and as it is sod by sample, when
it reaches its destination, and the re-
ceiver discovers the cheat, the shipper
has to make the loss good"
as there much Of this plugging
done?"
1T is still very common, but not
near so much as it used to be. There
is never man sharp enough to invent
trick but there is another one sharp
enough to detect it. We drop onto ;
all their little games. And there are
dozens, yes, hundreds Of shippers now
who can't imagine how we inspectors
see the bottom Of a car without un-
loading it,"
"WelI, it is somewhat mysterious !;
how is it,"
"You see this" said he, unloosing
charm from his watch-chain. "This
is the instrument we use in miniature.
BY forcing this down through car Of
grain and then drawing out the piston
we have vacuum into which, through
holes in the side, the grain falls. That
gives us a sample Of the grain in every
inch Of the car to the bottom"
"And yet there are people who viii
put bad grain on the bottomf''
eyes, but the complaint is growing
less. You see, our orders are when we
discover a plugged car to give it the
lowest grade on our scale. That
s:ekens them. Some time ago man
sent car of grain in here with orders
to ship to st. Louis if it didn't grade
SO and so here. Upon inspection l
found perhaps two wagon loads OF
damaged wheat spread over the car
about foot down from the top. So
it was sent on to st. Louis. The in
spector passed it. A short time after
l heard from the shipper. He said it
was loaded just as I said it was, but
he thought he would run the risk Of
its passing bere or at st. Louis"
"What are f the other plans
used to deceive the alert inspector?'
"Well, they will put damaged grain
all around the edges, for instance, and
put little layers here and there throug b
the car. There is a chance Of distrib-
uting a wagon load of bad wheat
through a car 50 that the inspector
misses it, and, like the man above,
they run the risk"
"What is the best trick in your
opinion you ever discovered" ?"
"About the best thing l have seen,
I believe. was this: Shippers would
fill sacks with bad wheat and distrib.
ute them about car, standing them
on the mouth Of the sack and fill up
the car. When they got the sacks
covered they would then pull them up
out, leaving the bal wheat standing in
column, just the size Of the sacks,
you know, and an inspector might
probe all day with his gauge without
touching one of those pillars" :"
"Doyou hope to break up the prac
tice iu timer"
eve can hardly hope to do that al
together, but we can keep the evil at
its minimum, which is about what we
,re now doing"