Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-10-25
FARMER is PARTLY
TO BLAME FOR Low
PRICE OF CORN CROP
Continued From Page ~

can be used for corn, peanuts, vel
vet beans or any other farm product.
The elevator is equipped, as stated,
with the latest devices and most
modern machinery for shocking,
Smelling, tanning and sorting corn.
It is an Al elevator in every sense
Of the word.
But the elevator isn't handling a
quantity of corn this year, notwith-
standing the big crop. The farm.
ers consider the price too low. They
do not think that 40 cents per bushel
for mixed corn is enough, and there
is no wild scramble toward the ele-
Vator.
Price Differences Explained
The day I was at Donalsonville
the grain quotations on the Chicago
exchange showed that corn was SELL
ing around So cents per bushel-a
difference between the Donalsonville
and Chicago price of about IL cents
per bushel, assuming that the quota
ton in Chicago was for mixed corn.
Mr.. Shingler helped me. to under
stand why corn in the farmers
hands in Seminole county isn't
| worth as much as corn in Chicago.
He put it this way:
I'VE buy corn in the shuck, or
on the cob, as you please. We buy
! it by weight and not by measure,
as some people suppose. 1t is i'm
| possible to measure a bushel of
| are bigger than others. We figure
100 pounds of corn in the shuck
to a bushel Of shelled grain.
SENhn 20 h; &c, To 8
mixed corn and they harvest mixed
corn, which is not worth as much
! in the markets of the country
as straight white or yellow corn.
| 1t is impossible for us to known
when we buy in the shuck wheth-
er we are getting mixed grain, white
cases out Of ten, it's a mixed va
riety.
Then, too, and this is import ant,
there are all sorts of grades and
| kinds Of corn. 1t is impossible to
tell when we buy sight unseen,
as it were, what grade of corn we
are getting. We are kept in the
dark as to this until the corn shall
have been shucked and shelled and
run through the elevator.
|
cotton to the market if a part Of
that bale is STAINS then the farm
er must sell the whole bale as
stained cotton. The buyer has no
means of knowing what the pro-
| portions Of stains to white cotton
| the bale contains, so it all takes
F, the lower grade. The farmers know
this, and they are reconciled to It.
! They sell their cotton according to
its grade-and the grading is done
by an expert.
Loses Weight in Cleaning
mot so with corn. The farmer
as a rule does not appreciate that
when he brings weevil-eaten, mixed
| corn to the elevator in the shuck
he cannot expect to receive the
top price for this product.
! Experience in operating the ele-
vator has shown that there is con
siderable shrinkage in quantity as
corn goes through the different pro.
cesses, but there is no serious COM
/ plant here, for the 100-pound to a
| bushel will work no great injustice
1t is well enough to understand,
however, that when the corn has
been shelled and treated for the
weevil, which most Of it contains,
| there is a shrinkage-how much it
/ is impossible to estimate. The fan
ming, cleaning and asserting Of the
corn, which is necessary before It
is graded and sacked for shipment
eliminates many of the smaller
grains.
! 1T must be obvious that the cost
of cleaning, grading, sacking and
storing the corn amounts to some
thing, and these expenses, with a