St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-01-27

the car, making s25 net over the high
est price offered at Northcote. This
was about $50 more than the first offer
Of the local buyer. Mr.. Mcmillan was
well pleased with the transaction and
it's subsequent effect, which became ap-
parent on the next. sale.
William Kelso, who operates indie
pendent houses at Hallock and North
cote, said he thought state inspection
should be abolished, for che was con-
WINGED that the state was now paying
men to destroy the value of the prod
ucts of it's fields" He believed the key
to the situation was in wiping out the
state inspection and requiring the buy
ers to pay for the grain on it's merits.
Speaking Of the local situation dur
ing the blockade, Mr.. Kelso said that
at Hallock the three private houses
had been unable to receive wheat much
Of the time, but that the only line
house in the town had never been full.
He estimated the capacity of the four
houses to be 100000 bushels, as follows:
st. Anthony & Dakota Qine), $4,000,
and the three Independent houses, ia
cobb, $4,000; McCullum &, Suffel, $1,000;
w. kelso, $4,000. He thought the line
house had been more conservative in
both grades and prices than the indie
pendent houses.
AT Northcote there was nearly
month that the farmers could not de-
liver a bushel of grain in the town,
for the elevators were all full. There
are three houses at Northcote: st.
Anthony & Dakota, line, 10000 capacity;
D. Morrison, independent, 10000, and
w. Kelso, Independent, $4,000.
Mr.kelso thought it was only a ques-
ton of time before the line companies
were crowded out by the independent
buyers. He said it was the rule Of the
line companies to grind the grades
and prices down to the lowest notch,
and believed the tendency was to pinch
the farmers too close. If the line COM
panieS were compelled to stand as
rigid an inspection at the terminals
as his houses had they were not SO
much to blame He had just received
the returns from car of wheat
shipped to Minneapolis, where it was
graded No. because of trace of
frost Mr.. Kelso had shown samples
of this wheat to a number of compe
tent judges, and none of them had
been able to detect the slightest trace
of frost The strangest part of it was
that all the rest of the wheat from this
farm had been hauled across to Bowes-
mont, North Dakota, where it was sold
for No. 1 northern. This wheat was
from the farm of Charles Walstdt,
west of Hallock.
Mr.. Kelso said his idea of the way a
crop like the wheat crop of last year,
containing unbroken smut balls,
Should be handled, was not through ell
evators, but by direct loading into cars.
When the grain is handled in the ele-
vators the smut balls are broken, and
the perfect kernels spoiled by the smut
working into the fuzzy end of the grain.
If this grain is put through securing
machine before handling and conse-
quent breaking of the smut balls, the
smut can all be taken out, as the balls
are blown out before reaching the
securing case. Working on this theory,
he had put in a securing machine,
and the wheat treated through it cana
out bright and clean, without trace of
smut. The trouble with grain cleaned
in the country was that the millers at
the terminals would not buy it at any
thing like it's actual value. The only
explanation Mr.. Kelso could offer was
that there is said to be in use at the
mills at Minneapolis a system of clean
ing wheat by the use of hot water. He
had been told that wheat could be
cleaned and prepared for the rolls by
this process for a quarter of a cent
a bushel. He thought the report was
true, for it is fact that wheat, ground
by the modern roller process, must be
slightly moist when it reaches the rolls
in order to obtain the best results. If
ILLS Is True, Clle IlllleTS WOulu, Oh
course, prefer to buy the unsecured
wheat when they can buy it for about
four cents a buShel less than they
would pay for the prepared product
Ii they can clean it by the new proc
eSs for a quarter of a cent a buShel
they can save 3a4 cents.
His experience in attempting to scour
the wheat before Shipping it was such
that he had decided to abandon for the
nYpSnnt 1aaGt of
chinery he had put in. In support of
the above ne showed the correspondent
a sample of a grain that had been
put through the scourer and the letter
accompanying the returns of the COM
mission house at Minneapolis. After
expressing regret that they had been
unable to secure a better price for the
wheat their letter continued: 1--WE
do not know just why it is, unless they
wish to get corner on securing them
selves, and do not wish to encourage
the work in the country, but we find it
next to impossible to sell this secured
wheat to our millers.''
AT Duluth all the millers refused to
look at the samples of wheat, but
asked what grade had been fixed by
the state inspection, and based their
bids on the state grades. This indi-
Gated, he said, not only a combination
of the millerS at the head of the lake
but a close communion between their
organization and the state inspection.
These conditions could not exist to such
an extent had it not been for the enor-
nous crop of last year When the
crop is near the average the competi-
ton is l<eener and the margins closer
all along the line.
Carlson Brothers, of Northcote, had
stored some of their wheat in pri-
vate bin at that point, and shipped two
cars the same day. One was loaded
from the elevator, out of the private
bin, and the other Waslaoded on track.
Both were shipped at the same time
to the same market, and the track
loaded car received one grade higher
than the one run through the ware
house. This ended the Carlson Broth
ers' business with the elevator compa-
MES, for the wheat was from the same
field and identical in quality.
Charles Teal Sr., of Euclid, owns
large farm between the town and the
keystone spur of the Northern Pacific
The elevator on the spur joins his farm,
but he ships most of his wheat direct.
Last fall he shipped $1,000 bushels to
one commission house in Duluth and
was satisfied that the direct shipment
is the only method for the farmer.
Nearly all of his wheat went No l
northern, and it would have graded
No. 1 hard any other year, when the
inspection was not as close as it has
been on the present crop. He had one
car that graded No. northern on &C
count Of smut, but had no reason to
complain of this car, although he
thought he should have had No. 1 hard