CHAPTER XI 



THE GRAIN HANDLERS 



THE devices used to take the grain from the grain 

 auger and deliver it into sacks or into wagons, as 

 the case may be, are called "grain handlers." 

 These are made in several styles, some of which, in addi- 

 tion to elevating the grain, weigh it and automatically 

 record the number of bushels threshed. 



The weight of a given quantity of grain varies accord- 

 ing to the kind and quality. Although almost universally 

 sold by the bushel, the number of bushels is determined 

 by weight so that the grain is actually sold by the pound. 

 For example, if the price of wheat be one dollar per 

 bushel, one dollar will purchase sixty pounds of wheat. 

 Sixty pounds of heavy wheat will not fill a bushel measure, 

 but this weight of light wheat will more than fill the 

 measure. In the days when there were no grain handlers, 

 and the grain from the separator was delivered into half- 

 bushel or bushel measures, it was usually customary to 

 give "big measure." By this method, were a farmer to 

 sell all of his grain, he would receive pay for a greater 

 number of bushels than he paid the thresherman for thresh- 

 ing it. This custom of giving "big measure" in threshing, 

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