Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-03-21
FIXES GRAIN VALUES
Uncle Sans Work of Stand
ardization Progresses.
DELAY IN ENFORCEMENT
System May Not Be Enforced for
Two or Three Years.
WILL BE PUT UP TO CONGRESS
Grades on Moisture, Content, Acid
ity and Refuse to Be
Decided.
WILL BE PUT UP TO CONGRESS

Grain standardization is a system
toward which the Department of AGricul-
ture has been working for some time.
Grain growers and grain handlers are
looking forward to the enforcement of
the system from various angles. At the
recent meeting of grain handlers in
Washington. consisting of representa-
tives of the National Grange, the Ma
tional Grain Growers Association and
the National Grain Dealers Association.
the chairman of the meeting said he was
certain that government Standardization
of grain would come, but was in hope it
would not be enforced Immediately, as
there was a bad grain crop on hand.
At a conference of the grain men with
the Secretary of Agriculture. the Secre-
tary of the Treasury and the Secretary
of Commerce and Labor the dealers were
assured the Standardization regulation
would not be enforced Immediately.
Congress to Get Matter.
This statement can be supplemented by
the Information from the Department of
Agriculture that the standardization test
will not be applied to all grain for per-
hapS two or three years. The Depart
ment has been working no the data for
standardiZinG grain for five years past
but it is such an immense subject that
it is expected it will be left for Congress
10 deal with. as Congress dealt with
the provision for establishing cotton
grades, a system that has now been Of
ticially accepted by the principal cotton
exchanges of the country.
The bureau of plant industry of the
Department of Agriculture, under DIR.
Is. T. Galloway, announces that it al
ready has the data necessary for the
standardization OF corn. The facts re-
garding the other cereals Hiil take longer
to complete There Will be a meeting of
the grain men in Washington, probably
next September, at which the facts Sc
lected will be submitted for their con-
and there is no reason that
be put in force unofficially for the next
years corn crop, but official action will
wait on Congress.
Work of Bureau.
The bureau of plant industry wants to
fix grades of corn definitely as to mois-
ture content, acidity and the amount of
dirt. trash and broken kernels permissi-
BILE. 1t has been working on the moisture
problem for long time because this has
most TO do with the heating and fermenta-
ton of grain in storage. A special ap-
paratus was devised for quickly and ac-
curately determining the amount of mois-
ture present. 1t is applicable to either
whole corn or cornmeal 1t consists in
oil and trapping and measuring the wa
ter extract. 1t has been determined that
II per cent is the limit of moisture that
ought to be allowed in good corn.
A circular already has been prepared for
the use of asylums and other institutions
showing how purchased corn and corn
meal can be tested for moisture acidity
and refuse. SO that the institution may
know exactly what it is getting This
work has been done largely by j. W. 7.
Duval.
Important Step.
The department realizes that with the
enormous corn crop of the United States
the establishment of official grades will
be an immense and important step. Such
action, it is thought, will be a valuable
one, as it will fix definitely the values a
grower and a dealer have a right to ex-
pect.
The laboratory of poison plant investi-
cation has been working also on the acid
ity of corn and the moldS, fermentS and
other poisons generated in bad corn. 1t
has found that acids of the carbolc acid
sons and has fixed a point above which
acidity should not be tolerated in corn
for human consumption. There will have
to be many other experiments, however.
before the department can determine the
point below which corn should not be used
for stock feed.
The acid standard adopted is that in
use in Italy and Austria, where pellegra
is a scourge. Many of the experiments
with corn poisons have been made. with a
view to determining whether or not spoil
ed corn Is really responsible for pellagra,
as has been popularity believed abroad
for years. No conclusion has been reach
ed by the department.
roSpou cihilify foy. he dicoaS ba
not been fixed on corn and this much
agrees with the Investigations of the pub
lie health and marine hospital surgeons.
1t has been found, however, that fer
mented corn does furnish some new poi
sons and one of these has been isolated