183 



found in the wheat it will be regraded "No. 1 — Smutty" and a reduc- 

 tion made in the price in proportion to the amount the dealer believes 

 the wheat has been damaged. 



Actual figures on dockages of this kind for the 1923 crop are given 

 in Table 11, in which appears a reliable report of the marketing of 

 1,082,913 bushels of wheat in 26 representative counties. Of the crop 

 reported on, 25,865 bushels or 2.38 per cent were so badly smutted that 

 a dockage in price was applied, averaging 7.44 cents per bushel and 

 amounting to a total of $1,924.36. Had it been possible to include all 

 instances of grain so badly smutted as to be unfit for sale these figures 

 would have been noticeably increased. 



The highest dockage actually applied was 10 cents per bushel and 

 the lowest 2 cents. The largest amount of smutted wheat reported from 

 any one county was 6,850 bushels, or more than 10 per cent of the crop 

 reported on from that county, while the smallest amount, aside from 

 those reporting nond, was 100 bushels or about 1/400 of the reported 

 crop. 



Although the crop of the state was more than 50 times the amount 

 reported, the report may be considered representative of dockages aj)- 

 plied throughout the state. On this basis, among the 55,432,000 bushels 

 produced in 1922 there would be 1,324,824 bushels smutted, and the 

 total dockage for the state at the average rate of 7.44 cents per bushel 

 would amount to $98,566.90. If one adds to this amount the cash value 

 of field losses estimated in Table 9 at $1,157,740, the total loss to the 

 wheat growers of our state in 1922 from stinking-smut infection reaches 

 the astonishing total of $1,256,306.90, which is more than 2.1 per cent of 

 the eiUire value of the harvested crop. 



A similar but more complete dockage report for the 1923 crop, 

 summarized in Table 12, includes 43 counties and 3,002,523 bushels of 

 wheat, of which 143,184 or 4.4 per cent were smutted and 105,574 or 

 3.51 per cent sufficiently snuitted to receive an average dockage of 4.88 

 cents per bushel, making a total loss of $5,157.57. 



The greatest amount of smutted wheat reported from any one 

 county was 28,200 bushels and the smallest 150. The highest dockage 

 reported was 15 cents per bushel and the lowest 1 cent. In addition to 

 what is shown in the table many indefinite but reliable reports were re- 

 ceived of buyers refusing to purchase very severely smutted lots of 

 wheat. In many cases lightly smutted wheat was received at elevators 

 and mills without a dockage being applied. 



The 1923 report includes approximately 1/20 of the state's crop. 

 If it be considered typical of the entire crop there would be in the 1923 

 crop 2.110,914 bushels sufficiently smutted to bring about, at the average 

 rate of 4.88 cents per bushel, a total cash dockage on the state's wheat 

 crop of $103,012.60. 



If one cidds to this the field loss shown in Tabic 10 of 2,558,000 

 bushels valued at $2,402,520, he finds indicated a total cash loss of 



