The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-06-16
FROM FARMER TO CONSUMER
THE ADVENTURES OF d Crop or
WHEAT,
Financial Arrangements for Moving
It-Inspected, Sampled and Weighed
All Along the Line.

All Along the Line.
Scarcely one man in ten actually en-
gagged in the grain trade, and certainly
not one in ten thousand outside of it, are
familiar with all of the details by which
a bushel of grain grown on United
States soil Is forwarded to the ultimate
consumer in Europe, Most business
men know in a general way how the
grain gets to the consumer ana the
money equivalent gets back to the far-
mer, for that is the final measure ana
test of the countrys actual prosperity,
on which the salvation of the present
and the hope of the future of all busl-
ness is founded. The details, however,
are seldom considered. 1t was In the
detail of the process that George D.
Gould, Russell Sage and other eastern
capitalists recently lost about five hum
bred thousand dollars.
Wheat is probably the most represen-
tative grain to follow on its long trip
from producer to consumer, for the rea-
son that it is grown in commercial
quantities in practically all of the set
tied portions of this continent, While
corn, with crop four times as large as
wheat, is raised in a comparatively mar
row belt The wheat, too, is exported in
it's original shape more generally than Is
any other important grain, while corn
seldom gets across county lines except
In the shape of pork or beef
Since the growing of wheat in this
country began there has been a con-
slant development and growth in the
methods of harvesting and transporting
it, as we'll as a constant shifting of the
producing area from one portion OF the
country to another. When the era OF
exports of wheat from the United states
began the great growing center was in
New York, Maryland and Virginia
Now the commercial surplus is grown
west of the Mississippi river. The mill
ing center meanwhile has moved from
Rochester to Minneapolis.
The progress in transportation and
sale of the wheat has been even more
marvellous than has the increase in the
productions The relative difference in
prices between the producer and consul
ner has been narrowed down so steadi-
ly that the latter can now secure his
supply at reasonable figure, while the
IOII1SI- Cdli SCH az q Soou pioii'' @AN NA-~
close of the war it cost sixty cents to
send a bushe of wheat from Chicago to
New York by rail--this figure, in fact,
being the average rail freight for all of
1864. This did not include the grain
mans profit at either end of the line,
but covered simply the bare reight
charge. To-day there is difference OF
only twenty cents per bushel between
the selling price of wheat in Chicago
and the price In Liverpool This open
market difference of course represents
the freight handling and other inciden-
tails of the transfer Of the wheat one
way and the transfer of its money
equivalent the other A long train of
charges attaches itself to the wheat as
soon as it leaves the farmers hands un-
til it is ultimately paid for by the con-
sumner. Upon these two, in proportion
as the demand exceeds the supply, or
vice versa, is the burden of this endless
expense account thrown. Among the
first of these items are the expenses of
the grain buyer at the railroad station
nearest the wheat field These usually
include the cost of running the local ell
evator which dumps the farmers grain
into bins, whence it is elevated to other
bins and in turn runs into cars along
side the elevator. Insurance starts as
soon as the grain leaves the farmers
wagon, often before, and follows the
grain to the consumer. The manager of
the country elevator must secure the
interest on the capital which he has
tied up in the grain from the time he
pays the farmer cash for it to the time
he can draw cash on the bill of lading
for the grain shipped to the elevator at
some terminal point on lake or rail
route that will move it nearer the for
eign market. At the terminal the grain
will be inspected by state officials who
will exact fee for the service; it will be
weighed by another set of officials-an-
other fee; it will be looked over and
bought on it's actual appearance, re-
CARELESS of the state inspectors verdict
as to the grade; the buyer will extract
his profit for SO doing when he pays for
the grain, and he will send it to a mix
ing house or hospital" where all of the
weeds, dirt or other impurities will be
blown out of it, the, light and shrilelled'
kernels will be separated from the
plump ones, and the grain will all the
while be taking on a hard polish which
Will DIlSllGN anu lHlplONc lto APPEAR
ance.
BY this time-it is in such shape that it
has passed beyond the No. grade be-
slowed upon it by the state grain is
spector, but has hardly yet entered the
No. 2 class. The internes in the hospital
aforesaid will therefore judiciouSly
''blend,'' say, one car of strictly choice
No. wheat FURNISHED them for the
purpose by the house physician) with
anywhere from two to half dozen cars
of the improved No. 8, and by this time
there are respectively three or seven
cars of No. wheat good enough to pass
muster as such in any market of the
world. Then will come the transfer
from the hospital or mixing elevator to
some elevator on which the state has
put the stamp of chartered approval
and the Chicago board of trade has fur
Their added it's Endorsement. Once inside
of this elevator warehouse receipt is
issued against it, and the grain is de-
clared good delivery under the rules
of the board of trade. The warehouse
receipt, hedged about with the indorse-
ment and consequent safeguards of the
state and the leading grain organization
of the world, thus becomes negotiable
l..