BUREAU OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS. 153 



grain standards act. This regulation was deemed advisable in order 

 to correct certain abuses which had developed in this branch of the 

 industrj-. 



FOREIGN MATERIAL NOW SHOWN ON INSPECTION CERTIFICATE. 



By direction of the Secretary, licensed inspectors at Minneapolis 

 and Duluth were required to state on all certificates issued by them 

 for hard red spring or durum wheat the principal kinds and quan- 

 titj' of foreign material when this factor determined the grade; and 

 to show on their certificates the grade to which the grain would other- 

 wise be entitled were it not for these factors. This requirement was 

 in the nature of a follow-up of the know-your-own-wheat campaign 

 conducted during the previous year. 



NEW TYPES OF GRAIN-CLEANING MACHINES. 



Experiments to develop grain cleaning machines and methods for 

 cleaning the foreign material out of the grain at the threshing ma- 

 chine, as part of the threshing operation, were continued. Statistics 

 show that there was approximately 1 bushel of foreign seeds and 

 trash (dockage) in every 23 bushels of spring wheat received at Minne- 

 apolis and Duluth during the crop movement ending August 31. 1923. 

 If this dockage had been cleaned out of the wheat and then shipped 

 separately to market, it would have filled over 11,383 freight cars, 

 each containing 40,000 pounds. This represents an enormous agricul- 

 tural waste. The two t^^pes of cleaning machines that were developed 

 during the previous year were redesigned and proved to be very 

 efficient in operation. One of the successful cleaners is especially 

 adapted to conditions in the spring wheat section of the Central 

 Northwest, and the other is more especially adapted to conditions 

 found in the Pacific Coast States. Three additional types of clean- 

 ing machines for use in conjunction with the threshing machine, and 

 which can be manufactured at a lower cost, were designed and built 

 and will be tested during the 1923 threshing season to determine 

 their efficiency in operation. 



PROGRESS IN FIELD WORK. 



Refinement of operating methods on the part of the three projects 

 M'hich comprise the work of the Federal Grain Supervision, namely, 

 inspection efficiency, board of review, and division of enforcement, 

 coincident with increased understanding on the part of district offi- 

 cers of Federal Grain Supervision, inspection departments, and the 

 grain trade, account largely for the higher accuracy of inspection, 

 higher uniformity of inspection between markets, and the appar- 

 ent greater satisfaction with the services afforded by Federal Grain 

 Supervision. Among the major situations which arose during the 

 past year were: Hearings at Portland and Seattle accorded to li- 

 censed inspectors for the misgrading of export cargoes; conferences 

 with the trade and inspection department at Chicago on the subject 

 of unsatisfactory inspection at railroad inspection points: confer- 

 ences with terminal market operators from Buffalo. Detroit, Cincin- 

 nati, Cleveland, and Toledo on the subject of shipment of grain by 

 grade between noninspection points, and the promulgation of regu- 

 lations providing for the even loading of cargoes. 



