INTEINSIC VALUES BASED ON DRY-MATTER CONTENT. 7 



known tendency of damp grain to deteriorate in storage and in 

 transit and the accelerated risk from such deterioration as the moisture 

 content increases; (3) conditions relative to supply and demand at 

 the time the grain is marketed and the relative capacity of the grain 

 markets to absorb it or dispose of it in a damp condition at a profit; 

 (4) weather conditions at the time of marketmg and future weather 

 conditions as affecting the condition and carrymg capacity of the 

 gram; (5) consideration of the fact that when gram must be artifi- 

 cially dried after bemg delivered to market, there is a certaui extra 

 charge for putting it through the drier and for freight on the water 

 that must be handled; and (6) that when gram is artificially dried 

 there is always a slight ''invisible loss" in weight in the drying 

 process. Many of these factors are of equal importance with reference 

 to the buying and sellmg of cottonseed, flour, and other products. 



It will therefore be seen that unless these products are purchased 

 for immediate consumption, the relative values as given in Tables 

 II to XII, inclusive, can not be literally applied as showing final 

 market values, premiums, and discounts; and it was not intended 

 that they should be so applied. 



RELATION OF REDUCTION OF MOISTURE CONTENT TO SHRINKAGE IN 



WEIGHT. 



Grain, and 'especially corn, frequently gets into commerce with a 

 moisture content too high to receive one of the higher grades or to 

 remain sound while in storage or during transportation. This is 

 especially true in a year in which there is more than the usual amount 

 of rainfall during the growing and harvest seasons. This condition 

 has been partially met by the trade by the introduction of machines 

 for artificially removing the excess moisture from the gram. These 

 grain driers, as they are termed, are extensively used, and increas- 

 ingly large amounts of gram are artificially dried by them each year. 



Whether gram dries naturally or is artificially dried, the percentage 

 of shrinkage in weight is always greater than the difference in the 

 percentage of moisture content before and after drying, as shown by 

 the moisture tester, unless all of the moisture is dried out when the 

 shrinkage and the reduction in moisture are equal. For instance, if 

 com having an original moisture content of 23 per cent is dried so 

 that it tests only 14 per cent, the moisture content is reduced by 

 9 per cent. The shrinkage in weight, however, is 10.46 per cent, 

 as is shown in Table I. 



When the original moisture content and the moisture content after 

 drying are known, the shrinkage can be determmed from Table I. 



The reason for .the difference in the percentage of shrinkage and 

 the reduction of the moisture content is fully explained m Bureau of 

 Plant Industry Circular No. 32.^ 



1 See Duvel, J. W. T. Moisture content and shrinkage in graia. U. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. Plant Indus. 

 Cir. 32, 1909, p. 4-7. 



