The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1917-02-15
GOOD-BY TO THE GRAIN SACK.


Never in the history of nations has problem presented it
self exclusively the farmer. Europe engaged in des
oerate war She teemng with millions of people waiting to
be fed Her workers are on the battle field This great country
of ours must step into the breach supply her with food
This year farmers given unheard of opportunity
to benefit themselves and their feowme More land must be
planted grain than ever before and the farmer will receive
good prices for his grain.
But he must learn that an increased grain acreage means
increased capacity and he will find that storage of grain in
sacks is no longer the proper method
Bulk storage for farmers and growers OF diver
slfed grains is far in advance of the sack storage.
The grain sack family is dwndng-the grain sack race is
dying out The that there no longer any good and
sufficient reason for its continuance
Why do need sacks! To hold the gran of course
but the method certainly belongs times less progressive than
the present The grain sack does the work. holds the grain
but it does it awkwardy expensivey and not always WELL
Any contaner that good for only time waste
full Millions of dollars spent every year for apple boxes
for barrels and tubs and of all kndbu these expenses
cannot very well be avoided For example, apples packed
in boxes which hold bushe If they packed in larger
containers there would be waste from the crushing of the fruit
and the would be required to purchase larger
tty than he could conveniently use before spelling
In the of a commodity like wheat the consumer does
not care about the containers the seldom the
wheat-wha he is the -four and in the cities often only
the baked loaf
The only object of the wheat sack therefore, is provide
- to Is cents each and seldom used than
We have therefore, situation where the farmer spends
five per cent the average OF his net profit the
contaner which he must have to market it. And remember
please that this five per cent straight out of the profit
In lean years represents the whole profit frequently it
represents half or one-fourth of it.
Aside from the cost sacks have many other disadvantages
They provide protection from rats from FIRE They
liable to burst any time and allow the contents to waste
Handling them is hard heavy work
ltat
big expense for labor There is first Of ackng the newly
teshed grain Then the cost of loading Wagons trans
portaon to the railroad, unloading and loading onto
In contrast with this slow and expensive SYSTEM note th
qucknes and economy In handling gram by tn
elevator system
The grain is loaded from the thresher automatically int
boxes and hauled to the elevator The drive
right into the elevator dumps its load and is doneno hand
ling at ALL lifting heavy sacks, unloading stacking the
sacks the station platform just load the wagon by letting
the wheat flow into it, drive to the elevator dump the wagon
and drive back
Figuring saving of sacks and labor elevator will pay
for itself in three to five This conservative est
and many elevators have paid for themselves in two years
However if the elevator pays for itself in three it IS
evident that it represents investment which pays dividend
OF 80 1-31d
There further profit which frequently pays for the
elevator in single and this is the profit which comes
from better price obtained by holding the grain for rise III
market We had wonderful example of this during the past
few months Mighty few farmers have cshed IN on all the
long price they should have received for their grain because
having way it, they sold early before the price went
up.
Conditions with last years crop were of course, abnormal
but every year the price of grain goes up few weeks after har
ost The sack farmers at harvest time flood the market with
wheat while the wise elevator farmers who watt get the better
nrice Eliminating the sack will make for better marketing
facilities and better prices as well
-t-t-
Sheepman will do well to attend the demonstration classes
which will he conducted in this city next week Coming
Saturday February, a. makes it douby convenient as that
regular shipping day anyway
-t-t-
Local Eks win celebrate Washngton's birthday in ft
ing manner will look good to the old town dressed uT
little