Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1900-09-21

farmers are cuItivating from 5000 to
10000 acres of wheat a year, where
the various farm buildings are con-
nected by telephone, where the plough
ing is done by complicated machinery,
where the farmer owns from two to
ten threShing machines, from twenty
to fifty reapers and hundreds of cattle
and horses, the sale of crop becomes
a large business proposition.
But the great mass of smaller farm
ers, especially throughout the winter
wheat districts, still sell In the old
fashioned way, to the local elevator
man or buyer. They keep themselves
so thoroughly informed, however, as
to the reigning prices in the great
marts and the probabilities as to rise
or fall, that the commissions OF the
local dealer have been scaled to the
lowest ootch. Indeed, In this day Of
many railroads, II the small wheat
grower is dissatisfied with local prices,
he can combine with his neighbors-a
not infrequent occurrence-and ship
directly by carload lots to some city
commission man, who Is only too will
ing to buy his grain at the highest pos
sible price.
System of Elevators.
So fierce is the competition among
the wheat buyers that at some centers,
most notably Minneapolis vast sys-
TENS OF elevators have sprung up, each
controlled by powerful central house
at the terminal point. There are no
fewer than thirty-siX elevator COM
panies in Minneapolis, controlling 1852
country elevators with combined ca
pacity Of nearly 50,000,000 bushels of
wheat.
single company controls 115 coun-
try elevators having a capacity of A.
100000 bushels Of wheat. And the
head Of this company Is also the head
| OF other companies there, having lines
of elevators In Minnesota and the Da-
kotas with combined storage capacity
of nearly 100000 bushels. He also
has lines of elevators In Nebraska and
Kansas.
Perhaps no one thing so simplifies
and facilitates the movement of wheat
as the present rigid system of inspec-
ton and grading. In former times a
load of grain must needs be carefully
examined by every prospective pur-
chaser, were he miller or commission
man; and if this buyer sold again, a
second examination became necessary,
with its attendant disagreement as to
quality. The business of wheat buy
ing, indeed, was full Of time-consuming
details, and in the end neither party
to trade was likely to be satisfied.
AS a consequence. the State govern
Ment, or, in some primary markets, the
local chamber of commerce, stepped in,
and assumed charge of the whole sys-
tenn Of grading and inspections; and
now no portion of the great wheat bus
mess moves with more ease and eff
cheney, degree Of care and accuracy
simply amazing to the outsider being
constantly maintained.
The method of grading the wheat Is
thus described by Mr. Baker. in Nc
Clure's:
"The deputy inspector and his men
are out early in the morning. The cars
from the wheat fields have been shunt-
ed to their special sd'ngs in each of
the yards. One man goes ahead, re-
cording the numbers and initials of the
cars, and examining the seals to see
that no one has tampered with them.
A second man breaks the seals and
opens the doors, and then comes the
deputy himself-the wheat expert. He
is quick and keen, long schOoled in OBJ
serving the minute differences which
mark the wheat from different parts Of
the country. | saw one grizzly old in
spector who had become so expert that,
according to humorous report, he could
tell what county in the West car of
wheat came from merely by smiling a
pinch of the grain.
"The inspector looks sharply for