282 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 



On September 22, and at various dates thereafter, samples were taken from a bin 

 containing several hundred bushels, from the interior of the mass, and subjected to 

 analysis for the purpose of obtaining the moisture. The results were: 



September 22 11. OG per cent of moisture. 



October 13 1G.57 " " " 



October 23 14.(52 " " " 



November 1 14.17 '• " " 



November 12 14.84 " " " 



Sanborn found in the dry climate of Utah (fourth report Utah Experiment Station, 

 1893, page 3G) that wheat gained in total weight by winter storage, although the gain 

 was slight. 



Two experiments were tried at the Ohio Experiment Station and reported in the 

 Eleventh Annual Report, Ohio Experiment Station, 1892, page 86. Some 20 samples 

 of wheat from as many diflerent varieties were put in small boxes and buried in a bin of 

 wheat, where they remained nearly a year. After the removal of the wheat from the bin 

 they were left in one corner without covering for two years following. The shrinkage for 

 the three years averaged 2.32 per cent. 



In another test 20 bags, each containing a bushel of wheat, were piled in a bin,* in 

 January. On weighing in July following it was found that there had been a gain 

 of a few pounds. The season was exceptionally wet. 



At this (Michigan) Station a lot of wheat was threshed on July 18, 1898. Two 

 varieties were stored to test the shrinkage, one, the White Clauson, a soft, white variety, 

 the other, the Buda Pesth, a hard, red sort. The grain was threshed from the shock, 

 but was dry, in good condition for storing. The bins were in the second story of one 

 of the College feed barns and were tight on sides and bottom but uncovered at the top. 

 There were some evidences of the work of mice, and from one of the bins not far 

 from four quarts of the grain leaked out. The wheat was stored 332 days. The 

 Clauson weighed originally 3,102 pounds, and lost 14 poimds, or less than a half of 

 one per cent : the Buda Pesth weighed 3,250 pounds, and lost but three pounds, or less 

 than a tenth of one per cent. 



It is apparent from the facts above cited that wheat, in Michigan, when well cured, 

 contains from 10 to 13 per cent of moisture, and that a given quantity increases or 

 decreases in weight according to the dryness of the air, the variation, except in extra- 

 ordinary conditions, amounting to not more than 5 per cent. 



MILL PRODUCTS. 



Wheat flour exhibits the same peculiarities of oscillations in weight, responding to 

 the moisture of the air. Experiments reported in Bulletin 4 of the Bureau of Chemistry 

 of the Department of Agriculture, page 48, show that there may be a gain or loss of 

 from 1 to 3 per cent on successive days by reason of a change in the moisture content 

 of the atmosphere. In the course of a month this variation may amount to 5 per 

 cent. 



The coarser by-products of the flouring mills show a similar rise and fall in weight 

 corresponding to the changes in the moisture content of the atmosphere. In the case 

 of the coarse bran there was a variation of 5 per cent between the first of April and 

 the 12th of June, although the weight was much more constant than in the case of 

 the patent flour. The middlings had the same peculiarity of fluctuating in weight 

 from day to day according to the dryness of the air. The following table condensed 

 from pages 53, 54 and 55 of Bulletin No. 4, Bureau of Chemistry, Department of 

 Agriculture will show the extent of the variations in weight from day to day; one 

 hundred pounds of each material was weighed on the 31st of March, and the table 

 below gives the weight of that hundred pounds on the dates mentioned: 



