HOUSE WITH CLOSED SHUTTERS 77 



Dominion Government officials. Upon their verdict 

 depends the price per bushel which will be paid for any 

 shipment of grain, market quotations varying for dif- 

 ferent grades; whether stored, sold at home or sold 

 abroad their certificate of grade brands that particular 

 wheat throughout. The huge river of grain flows in 

 upon them unceasingly; at times the inspectors have 

 to work at top speed to avoid being engulfed. The 

 variety of Nature's response to the growing conditions 

 in changing seasons must not confuse them from year 

 to year ; but with sharpened senses and sound judgment 

 they must steer a sure course through the multiplicity 

 of grades and grade subdivisions. 



The thoroughness of the system adopted by the Grain 

 Inspection Department is shown by description of the 

 work done at Winnipeg. Offices and staffs in charge 

 of deputy inspectors are maintained in the different 

 railway yards. They work in shifts night and day ; for 

 during the mad seventy-or-so days in which the Western 

 crop stampedes for the lakefront there is no let-up to 

 the in-rolling wheat-bins which come swaying and 

 grinding in over the rails like beads on a string the 

 endless rosary of harvest thanksgiving. Wheat sam- 

 ples must be obtained from each car and no train can 

 be moved until a placard has been placed at the end of 

 it, reading: "Grain Inspectors have finished this 

 train." A fifty-car train can be sampled in about an 

 hour and a half, which is comfortable time for a change 

 of engines and crews. 



The sampling gangs work with all the precision of 

 gun crews each man with a particular thing to do. 

 One goes down the train, opening car doors and leaving 

 an empty sample bag in each car. Running up a short 

 ladder, the sampler climbs over the top of the inner 



