REPORT OF THE SOCIETY 93 



tmeto the growers of small grains." (Cox, 11.) When the diminished crop has 

 been harvested, at too great an expense, the loss has only begun to show. 

 Weed seeds are as expensive in the threshed-out seed as are the weeds to the 

 growing crop. The grain-buyers and graders, the elevator owners, and the 

 millers, are the stone wall into which the poor reckless farmer bumps when 

 he ships his weedy grain, clover or timothy seed. They are the real police, 

 and have power that dwarfs that of the seed inspector; yet they are the far- 

 mer's good friends as well. According to Dymond (3) when the grader ex- 

 amined samples representing 25,000 bushels of wheat he found only 92.6% 

 by weight of pure wheat, the remainder was largely weed seeds. This is 

 a bad example, but a car of flax examined showed weed seeds to be 16% 

 of the total weight. 



Western grains are graded and "docked," fortunately for the Quebecer, 

 at Winnipeg and Fort W^illiam-Port Arthur. Weedy grain cannot be 

 binned with its proper grade until cleaned. The percentage of impurities 

 is deducted and dockage set in accordance with this percentage. It was 

 found that the actual dockage at terminal elevators set by the Inspectors 

 in the year 1912-13 was over 100,000 tons. To haul this cost, at an average 

 of $6.50 per ton, $650,000. From 10 to 20% of the best screenings are ship- 

 ped to Ontario and Quebec, most of the rest goes to the Unites States. 

 In any case the screenings are a clear loss to the grower. Thus it pays 

 the grain grower to keep down or control the weeds. Even if he grows 

 weeds, there is little reason for shipping them. "The president of the Nation- 

 al Association of Thresher Manufacturers of the United States says : ' The 

 manufacturers of threshing machinery of both the United States and Canada 

 are perfectly willing to furnish with each machine a cheat or dirt screen, 

 and with proper use of the same the operators of threshing machinery 

 can take most of the shrunken grain, dirt and weed seeds out, so that the 

 grain can be delivered to the farmer practically clean.' Another manu- 

 facturer states: 'We have for some years been supplying an attachment 

 to our separators which are shipped to the Argentine Republic, where, 

 I understand, they have no elevators in which to clean the grain.' A grower 

 who owns a threshing machine should fit it with a set of sieves that will 

 make it possible for him to clean his grain more efficiently as he threshes 



it Loss can be avoided if the farmer will insist that the thresher 



operate his separator so as to clean the grain more thoroughly at threshing 

 time." (3, 38). Here may be mentioned what the government experts 

 advise should be done with screenings. "The finer weed seeds (black seeds) 

 in screenings should be separated from the rest and burned. Screenings, 

 after being carefully cleaned over a 1-14 inch perforated zinc screen to 

 remove the fine seeds, make a valuable feed for any kind of stock. They 



