PREFACE 



For the past two years the Department of Agriculture has been 

 investigating-, in cooperation with the chief grain inspectors of the 

 country, the systems of grain inspection in use in the various grain 

 markets of the United States, in order to ascertain how these systems 

 might be improved and made more useful to agricultural and commer- 

 cial interests. The investigation has been prosecuted by Mr. C. S. 

 Scofield under the direction of the Botanist, and the present report, 

 covering the subject of corn, is the first to be presented for publication. 



A difference of 2 per cent in the moisture of a shipload of corn may 

 determine whether it will arrive at its destination in a sound condi- 

 tion or be seriously damaged. At present the only moans which an 

 inspector uses to determine this difference in moisture is his sense of 

 touch, never aided or corrected by any actual measurement of the 

 moisture. 



Upon the request of the Botanist, the Chief of the Bureau of Chem- 

 istry conducted a series of moisture-determination experiments upon 

 samples of corn furnished him, and fixed upon a form of apparatus 

 suitable for measuring the moisture content of grain. With this 

 apparatus a large series of moisture determinations has been made in 

 the Botanical Laboratory on samples of corn secured from various 

 markets. Based upon the results of these experiments, this report is 

 now published in order to show to the commercial organizations how 

 their inspection may be made more nearly uniform and how both the 

 buyer and the seller may be benefited through the possession of a 

 more exact description of their goods than can be secured by existing 

 methods. 



Frederick V. Covili.k. 



Bota/riist. 



Office of the Botanist, 



Washington, D. C. May 7, 1903. 



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