Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1906-09-13
HARD TIMES FOR
GRAIN BUYERS
Their Position More Difficult to
Hold Than Evel This year.
Much Foul Stuff in Grain

The elevator man is always cOnSi
dered fair game for the farmer to
cuss. This year he is more so. Some
of them are getting so they are
thinking of wearing base ball masks
and shin protectors during business
hours. The cause of it all is the
change in the meUhods of taking out
dockage on the different kinds of
grain. Heretofore fax has been the
only crop that has been docked by
the percentage method. This year
wheat is treated the same way. 1t
has been nothing unusual to get 40
to so per cent dockage on fax that
was full of wild mustard, but from
nalf pound to two pounds has been
the limit of dockage per bushel on
wheat, no matter how foul it has
been. Now, with the per centage
test, there is load after load docked
as high as ten, twelve and fifteen
pounds to the bushel.
First comes the familiar brass
KETTLE to grade--the wheat. Being
full of wild oats, straw, and other
stuff it is bound to test low, and then
getting a 20 per cent dockage in adj
dition converts the brawny farmer
into geyser OF wrath that makes
the poor trembling wretch at the
scales keep al ,yc on the back door
latch while 49, i, making out the
wheat ticket.
1t is told of one buyer short dis
tance out wesJ that he got such a
scorching from ! farmer that was
docked Is pounds to the bushel that
he sent word to the house that he
was going TO jump his job. The
company instructed him that sweet
oil and cotton was good for burns,
and patience and meckness would go
long way to help him hold down
the job, and that they could not
think of letting him go. They would
rather pay his life insurance. He Is
still hanging on but the strain on
him is great
Out east is a buyer Of another cali
Der. A farmer there brought in the
last load from the machine, just d
few bushels, to sell. After the dock
age was taken out there hardly was
wheat enough left to fill bran sack.
The farmer made a kick on that kind
of deal, but the buyer braced up to
him and informed him that he did
not care to have wheat come to that
elevator bv the wheelbarrow full.
The. sober facts are that There
seems to be larger amount of wild
oats in the wheat this year than ever
before. One of the reasons for this
is that the berry of this pest is much
plumper than usual and the threshing
machines do not separate it from the
grain. If it was not for the beard OF
the wild variety it would be hard to
distinguish it from tame oats in
many cases, so plump is the berry.
AS rule the wild oats is not consi-
dered of any value for feeding pur-
poses, but this year it is verv nearly
as good as any tame oats and it will
pay handsomely to screen them out
and save them for feed. Farmers
who do not will probable have to pay
$40 per ton for them next spring
when they buy ground feed, and nc
body to blame for it but themselves.
How to rid the fields Of this pest is
a perennial question. The summer
fallow will oftenest be recommended.
Next in favor is the seeding OF bar
ley. The method which is most sue
cessful and the least applied is to SOW
the field to any tame variety Of oats,
thus causing a cross breed thai viii
not smell out and seed the ground be.
fore harvest time. Two years OF that
kind of treatment will rid any field
of wild oats that does not get fresh
seed from some other source.