MAGIC OF THE MIXING-HOUSE 



be "No Grade on account of moisture." 1 

 He had a great many cars to inspect that 

 morning, and less than half enough time in 

 which to inspect them. 



Doe & Company, the commission firm to 

 which the wheat had been sent, now took 

 samples of it, put them into neat little tin 

 pans, and the next morning early sent them 

 to the Chamber of Commerce to be displayed. 



At 10 A.M. the gong sounds for the begin- 

 ning of trading on the Chamber. Five minutes 

 before ten an able young man representing 

 the Tidewater Elevator Company had been 

 along the tables, taking note of the good wheat 

 displayed there, and the instant the gong went 

 he bought the Evans shipment on sample 

 at five cents below the market. 



1 No Grade is good wheat, except that it is said to have a little too 

 much moisture. It is often as good as No. 1 or No. 2, and would 

 so grade if it were drier. Being graded "No Grade" means it must 

 go (by sample) on the table at the Chamber of Commerce and be 

 sold for whatever is bid for it. If there were nothing else, this 

 manifest injustice would be enough to breed revolt in any 

 American community. 



Rejected Grade means "dirty or smutty or moldy, or having other 

 grains in it to the extent that it cannot be graded No. 3 or No. 4," 

 and so it is rejected altogether. As noted elsewhere, the other grains 

 when extracted are almost as valuable as wheat. 



It may not be necessary, but can do no harm to explain to the un- 

 initiated the basis for and importance of these gradings. As we have 

 seen, the farmer's price is determined upon them. "No. 1 Hard" 

 means wheat of a rarely fine quality, hard and clear, of a certain 

 flintlike appearance and definite color, standing at the top of the 

 market. Next below is No. 1 Northern, No. 2, No. 3, No. 4, accord- 

 ing to the appearance and weight of the bushel; followed by Re- 

 jected and No Grade. These were the grades in use in the wheat 

 market for more than a generation, though discarded now. Between 

 each grade there was ordinarily a difference in price of from three 

 to fifteen cents a bushel. 



39 



