MARKETING WHEAT 147 



heat and be injured in quality. After grain has been stacked 

 for three or four weeks, it has then gone through this "sweat," 

 and may be safely stored in large bins. 



As wheat is a dry grain, it does not usualty lose more 

 than 2 or 3 per cent from shrinkage in storage. 



Much grain is sold from the farm soon after it is har- 

 vested. This is largely held in elevators. 



An interesting treatment of storage in elevators is found 

 in The Book of Wheat. State and Federal "Acts" should 

 be consulted on this subject. 



MARKETING AND .MARKET GRADES 



187. Marketing. The usual practice is to market the 

 crop soon after it is threshed. Farmers occasionally hold 

 their wheat for several months with a view to getting better 

 prices, but the practice as a rule does not prove profitable. 

 Under the present war conditions (1918), the price of wheat 

 for the year's crop is fixed by the President, so that there is 

 no inducement to the farmer or any one else to hold it for 

 higher prices. There is considerable shrinkage in wheat in 

 storage, for it loses some moisture, and there is also some 

 mechanical loss due to mice, leakage, etc. Another loss 

 from holding is the loss of the earning power of the money 

 represented by the value of the wheat. If one is to figure 

 on the shrinkage by loss of moisture, the mechanical loss, 

 and interest on the money tied up in the wheat, he will lose 

 more times by holding than he will gain. 



183. Grades. In accordance with the United State? 

 Grain Standards Act, the market grades of wheat are fixed by 

 the Secretaiy of Agriculture. The grades effective July 15, 

 1918, divide wheat into six classes, hard red spring, durum, 

 hard red winter, soft red winter, common white, and white 

 club. The hard red spring class is divided into dark north- 

 ern spring, northern spring, and red spring subclasses; the 

 durum class into amber durum, durum, and red durum sub- 



