328 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



perfect conficlenec with which flour, bearing his brand as inspec- 

 tor, was sold and re-sold throughout the mercantile community. 

 No one buying a barrel of flour of any grade bearing Brown's 

 maik, except' it were branded bad, had any fear of getting un- 

 sound flour. NoAV the case is reversed, and almost every purchaser 

 fears being cheated with unsound, unwholesome flour. Under 

 succeeding inspectors the standard of Brown was permitted to 

 decline, and millers became insolent and defiant if their flour was 

 not passed above its merited grade. In one instance, Troy millers 

 threatened an inspector with loss of his oflice unless he passed a 

 lot of inferior flour as superfine. The inspector replied that he 

 would sooner lose his oflice than break his oath, and the miller 

 sent his flour back to Troy and had it inspected and passed as 

 superfine there, and returned to New York and sold under the 

 Troy .nspection. The transactions at the Corn Exchange in put- 

 ting oS unsound flour, through brokers and dealers, are fraudulent 

 beyond description. Bad, very bad flour is passed ofi'as superfine. 

 No lower grade is generally known. In a single case where a 

 sample of middlings or ship stufi" was sent in for sale it was 

 remarked by millers and dealers that the miller who ground it 

 did not know his business ; that superfine flour could be made of 

 it. Much of the flour branded superfine is made of refuse stuff, 

 sometimes mingled with damaged, even caked wheat, beaten apart 

 by shovels, and turned in with other and less damaged wheat, and 

 sent to the mills to be ground altogether. M.llers at the south 

 reserve the best flour of their grinding, mark it family, and sell 

 it at home. The next run or quality they mark or brand extra, 

 and send it to Nevr York. Shippers who buy flour for export put 

 on w^hat mark or brand they please. In one instance, a shipper 

 rec[uested a dealer to put on a favorite mark of another shipper, 

 which the dealer declined doing. One member says the manceu. 

 vering arid cheatino- at the Corn Exchanoe are so common and so 

 bad that he seldom goes there ; that they are scandalous, infamous. 

 In one instance, a lot of flour was sold by a factor, who was autho- 

 rized to sell a larger parcel by the first as a sample. The larger 

 lot was delivered, and found to be inferior to the sample by at 

 least $1 a barrel, and returned to the fiictor, who .sold it again as 

 best he could. Such cases are not rare, but common — very com- 

 mon. No reliance is or can be placed in the integrity of any 

 brand. One lot may be of fair quality, and the next vile stuff'. 

 YwU i^ic.ol buy by -sample, and hold the .-idler strictly to it, or 



