The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1911-01-13
GRADING IS CONDEMNED
North Dakota Grain Commissioners
Want Analysis and Baking Tests.

it's physical appearance is con.
:, demned by the grain commits
sioners of the state. H. 0.
Brown and J.. T. Clifford. in
their biennial report just sub
mitted. Grain, in the opinion
Of the commissioners, should
be graded upon it's commercial
or milling value, determined
by accurate chemical analysis
and baking tests. 81. ~ "' ;as
I'VE find that wheat was
graded No. g Northern," say
the com missioners in their re-
port on account of it's badly
bleached color, made as good
-four, and the baking test was
equal to the best hard or No. 1
Northern grade. Also smut in
wheat affects the grades just
to the amount of smut it con-
tains. Take, tor example, a
sample of our best Northern
wheat and let it contain smut,
and it will be graded as low as
No. 8 or rejected. This we al
so believe to be unjust. All
) wheat is washed by the modern
mills of our country as we'll as
smutty wheat, in order to pro
perlv temper it for grinding.
We understand that the cost is
no more to condition smutty
wheat than any other wheat,
the smut being all removed by
the same operation. This is
another good reason why it
should be graded upon its COM
mercial value.
We find, and it is freely
admitted, that about all car
goes loaded. out of Duluth
carry one pound and often
times more dockage per bushel
that is not taken into account
or considered. The mixing of
the different grades as they are
suspected in and the grades
they finally take, on out in
spection, is unjust and works
to the Disadvantage 81 our
state.
I'm justice to the farmers
and growers of grain we be
lieve the inspection depart
ment, from the samplers to the
board of appeals inclusive,
should be taken out of politics
and come under the civil SER
vice regulations, so that no
person or persons connected
with the service would depend
on holding his job upon the
success or failure of any politi-
cal party.
mo doubt the mater of
weighing grain at the termi'
nails at Minneapolis and Du
luth and other weighing sta
tons have been more severely
complained of than any other
department of the grain busi-
ness. but we believe, not al
ways justly from the fact that
shippers do not always weigh
their grain.
After setting forth the me-
thods employed in weighing
grain at the terminals the COM
missioners state that the Min
nesota law requiring the ship
per to place card in the car
giving the shipping weight is
not complied with in more
than one case. in ten. It is
very important that this law
should be complied with for
then the state weigher would
notice any difference between
the state weight and the ship
per's weight, while the grain
was still III the hopper and the
matter could be Immediately
investigated. If the loss was
caused by a leaky condition of
the car he would have a valid
claim against the railroad COM
pany, and as the shipper would
know his actual loss settle
ment could be more easily OBJ
tanned.
The number of bad order
/ cars, that is cars without seals
or doors,s or having leakys sides,
ends or bottoms, found7by the
state weighing department for
the past five years will average
more than $1,000 cars each
year at Minneapolis alone.
On the question of durum
wheat the commissioners be-
lieve that rs per cent or more
Of all durum received at Min
neapolis is mixed with north
ern spring wheat and made in
to patent flour at the Duluth
AMI Minneapolis terminals.
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