SHRINKAGE OF SHELLED CORN IN CARS IN TRANSIT. 19 



Tn the fourth experiment the temperature of all the corn at the 

 time of loading, May 11, 1011, wns 21.2 degrees higher than the tem- 

 perature of the corn in the third experiment, being 61.2° and ranging 

 from 60.7° in the corn in transit to 61.6° F. in the corn on the track. 

 From figure 5 it will be seen that during the fourth experiment the 

 air temperature at western points was always lower than the air 

 temperature at Baltimore; thus, the corn in the four cars on the 

 track showed an average temperature of 99.6° at the end of the 

 experiment, as against an average of 90.6° F. for the corn in the four 

 cars in transit. The average loss in weight of the corn in transit was 

 0.50 of 1 per cent, and of the corn held on the track 0.73 of 1 per cent. 



In the first experiment, conducted from April 14 to May 11, 1910, 

 no duplicate cars were held on the track at Baltimore. The average 

 loss in weight of the corn in the five cars in this experiment was 1.01 

 per cent. The average temperature of the corn at the time of loading 

 was 55° F., or 6.2 degrees lower than the average temperature of the 

 corn used in the fourth experiment, May 11, 1911. The fact that 

 the corn in the first experiment showed a greater shrinkage than the 

 corn in the experiment conducted from May 11 to June 1-3, 1911, 

 when the average temperature of the corn and the average of the 

 mean daily air temperatures were considerably higher, is explained 

 by the fact that the corn in the first experiment showed an average 

 moisture content of 18.1 per cent as against 16.7 per cent for the corn 

 in the fourth experiment. The corn was also stored in the cars for 

 five days longer; therefore, the difference in moisture and the differ- 

 ence in the number of days that the corn was contained in the cars 

 caused a larger percentage of shrinkage in the corn that Avas in 

 transit from April 14 to May 11, 1910, than was found in the experi- 

 ment conducted from May 11 to June 1-3, 1911. 



Figure 6 also shows that the average moisture content of the corn 

 in the shipment made on December 24, 1910, was 17.9 per cent. The 

 number of days the corn was contained in the cars was 27. The ship- 

 ment made March 2, 1911, contained corn with an average moisture 

 content of 18.3 per cent. This corn was also stored in the cars for 

 27 days. . The average moisture content of the corn in the shipment 

 of April 14, 1910, was 18.1 per cent, the duration of this test being 

 likewise 27 days. However, as corn with a higher moisture content 

 deteriorates very rapidly during the spring months, when the weather 

 is generally warm, corn with a moisture content of 16.7 per cent was 

 selected for the shipment of May 11, 1911, and the time was reduced 

 from 27 to 22 days. Even in this experiment, as shown in figure 5, 

 the corn in two of the cars was hot and very badly damaged, while 

 the, corn in four of the remaining six cars had begun to heat before 

 unloading. 



