62 UNITED STATES - AGRICULTURAI, ECONOMY IN GENERAL 



spe<!:tion or appeal to have its grade lowered, and he very frequently exer- 

 cises this privilege. Consigners often give specific orders to commission mer- 

 chants to demand reinspection if the car they are consigning is graded below 

 a certain level. The millers and elevator men meet in competition for the 

 grain, and hence there are many reinspections and appeals. Often in- 

 spection, reinspection and an appeal have all taken place before the car 

 which has been sampled reaches the terminal market, so rapid are these 

 operations. 



The Minneapolis and Duluth Boards of Appeal have also other functions. 

 They meet annually before 15 September and establish the grades of all 

 grain subject to State inspection. These grades and the results of tests 

 of them are published daily for one week in a newspaper in Minneapolis and 

 in Dulnth. All grain received at any public warehouse is graded according 

 to these grades, which are not changed before the next annual meeting 

 without the consent of at least five members of the board. Bach board 

 determines the grade and dockage of all grain in cases of appeals from the 

 decisions of the chief deputy inspector, and may for such purpose ask to have 

 fresh samples brought to it straight from the car concerned. It also helps 

 and advises the chief grain inspector, enabling him to instruct the deputy 

 inspectors of grain under his jurisdiction in accordance with the board's, 

 decisions and work. It may recommend the Railroad and Warehouse 

 Commission to discharge incompetent inspectors, and may make other re- 

 ports and recommendations. 



D) The Official Sampler. 



In addition to the systems of checking we have mentioned there exists 

 an " official sampler ", established more than ten years ago by the Chamber 

 of Commerce. This officer is an expert grain inspector of long experience. 

 He has no connection whatever with the State inspection department but 

 is the employee of the Chamber of Commerce. It is his duty to help to 

 adjust disputes between members of this chamber. Thus when a carload of 

 grain is sold on the sample m.arket the buyer takes half the sample to check 

 the grain in the car when it reaches the mill or elevator,, and if the grain 

 is not up to sample he appeals to the official sampler who takes a new sample 

 from the car and compares it with that on which the sale was made. The 

 decision of the official sampler is final. 



* 

 * * 



The organization which we have briefly analysed has made the business 

 of selling grain extraordinarily rapid, putting an end to all the delays to 

 which traffic was subject before the system of inspection was established. 

 Before the sampling points were organized there were, during periods of 



