[dymond] elevator SCREENINGS 95 



regulation dockage screen mesh, viz: — ten wires per inch each way, and as all of the 

 market grain had to pass over this, I reckoned there could not be anything left to go 

 through the Government Inspector's screen. As a matter of fact, we had very little 

 weed seed, and what fell through the bottom screen into the said receptacle was 

 mainly small bits of broken grain of the appearance of medium crushed wheat. This 

 was fed directly to the hogs without further crushing, and they did well on it, and I 

 reckoned we could take care of any weed seeds germinating after digestion by the 

 hogs, as these were enclosed in a small pasture. Of course, if weed seed was to form 

 any material part of what fell through the lower screen, the idea was to burn it. It 

 will be understood that the adjacent wagon received the great bulk of the screenings. 



"A lad attended the cleaner and cleaner engine, and his wages, together with 

 the cost of fuel and oil, worked out at $3.35 per day. The cleaning capacity being 

 400 bushels per hour, the operating cost per bushel would thus be (neglecting interest 

 on capital) less than '/lo cent per bushel. But the normal day's threshing, with 

 this year's long straw, was rather under 2,000 bushels wheat, say 1,500 bushels, 

 which thus cost under ]/i cent per bushel to clean. 



"Well, as to the results, we had no dockage in the returns of grain that went 

 through the cleaner— about 80,000 bushels wheat. But we had one neighbour 

 thresh a field of about 10,000 bushels for us, without, of course, any cleaning attach- 

 ment, and the returns here showed an average Government dockage of 2 -6 per cent, 

 although there was scarcely a weed on the whole field. Another neighbour threshed 

 a straight car load of 1,500 bushels wheat off a small field that had not a weed notice- 

 able on it, using a 1915 Separator, and the Government return was 3 per cent dock- 

 age. I think I am safe, therefore, in saying the cleaning eliminated 2 per cent dockage 

 on 80,000 bushels, or 1,600 bushels of good feed wheat, which would be worth 60 

 cents a bushel for feed purposes, making $960. There is also the saving of freight of 

 23 cent per 100, making another $220, besides the hauling of it from farm to rail at 

 the local rate of one cent per bushel per mile, or $64 for the 4-mile haul. 



"The account, therefore, stands for 1915: 



Capital Expenditure $ 913 1,600 bus. at 60c $ 960 



Operating 200 Freight on ditto at 23c. per cwt. 220 



Repairs, Cleaner and Engine 28 Haulage 64 



Interest on capital 54 



Balance 49 



$1 , 244 $1 , 244 



"It would thus appear that the outfit paid for itself in the one season, and the 

 cleaner, owing to its substantial construction, seems as good as when it was started. 

 "I think one could argue from the above that cleaning the grain on a large farm 

 is practicable where one has their own threshing outfit. On a medium sized farm, 

 where the threshing is hired out, it could not be done in the case of grain hauled 

 directly to market. When the grain is stored on the farm before hauling, cleaning 

 is practicable and advisable. It will be apparent that, on the same basis of screenings, 

 the proposed elevator charge oi 1% cents per bushel would have caused a loss of 

 $220 besides the expense of hauling both ways, but I imagine the proposed charge 

 might very well be a good deal less. The really practicable way for the whole country 

 generally would be that the threshing outfits should include a grain cleaning attach- 

 ment, as many of them now do a sheaf loading machine." 



Sec. V, Sig. 7 



