The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1900-09-14


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 a crop becomes
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, hswever, 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 notch. Indeed, In this day Of
many railroads. If 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 bis 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 a powerful central house
at the terminal point. There are no
fewer than thirty-six elevator COM
panies in Minneapolis, controlling 1852
country elevators with a combined ca
pacity of nearly 5O,OOO,OOO bushels Of
wheat.
A single company controls 115 coun-
try elevators having a capacity of A.
10000 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 a combined storage capacity
of nearly 100000 bushels. He also
has lines of elevators in Nebraska and
Kansas.
Perhaps no one thing so simplifes
and facilitates the movement Of wheat
as the present rigid system OF inspec-
ton and grading. In former times q
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 tC
quality. The business of wheat buy
ing, indeed. was full Of time-consuming
details, and in the end neither party
to a trade was likely to be satisfied.
AS a consequence. the State govern
ment, or, in some primary markets, thu
local chamber of commerce, stepped in
and assumed charge of the whole sys
TEN Of grading and inspection; ant
now no portion of the great wheat bus
mess moves with more ease and Ell
cheney. a degree OF care and accurac.
simply amazing to the outsider being
constantly maintained.
The method of grading the wheat j.
thus described by Mr.. Baker, in Nc
Clure's:
THE deputy inspector and his mel
are out early in the morning. The car
t from the wheat fields have been shunt
ed to their special sid'ngs in each o
i the yards. One man goes ahead, re
/ cording the numbers AMI initials Of tn
g cars and examining TIE seals to Sc
q that no one has tempered with them
o A second man breaks the seals an
n opens the doors, and then comes tn
e deputy hmself-the wheat expert. II
= is quick and keen, long schooled in OF
o serving the minute differences whic
5 mark the wheat from different parts O
the country. l saw one grizzly old IL
r spector who had become so expert tina
r according to humorous report, he coul
l. tell what county in the West a car q
f. wheat came from merely by smiling
Il pinch of the grain.
e "The inspector looks sharply fc