22 BULLETIN 558, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



second, those who locate at large shipping points during the rush 

 movement immediately after harvest and handle as much grain as 

 possible while the movement is on, seeking other points when 

 normal conditions are restored. An especially large number of this 

 class of buyers frequent Texas and southern Oklahoma. A large 

 percentage of the itinerant grain purchasers in this territory are 

 cotton buyers who are accustomed to curb bidding. Little cotton is 

 moved during the season of wheat harvesting in July and August, 

 so many of the cotton buyers take a " flyer " in grain. Figure 3 

 shows four of these buyers bidding for a wagonload of wheat on 

 the public square of a Texas town. When this picture was taken, 

 at the height of the movement, nine scoop shovelers and one elevator 

 company were engaged in buying wheat at this station. 



The permanent scoop shovelers usually are farmers, merchants, 

 or liverymen living in the community who seek this method of 

 increasing their respective incomes. 



METHODS OF BUSINESS. 



Owing to the small amount of money invested, the cost of oper- 

 ating a scoop-shovel business is less than that of the regular dealer, 

 who must maintain an expensive plant; but, as the scoop shoveler 

 rarely possesses a thorough understanding of grain-marketing 

 methods, it is seldom that his scope of influence is widely extended. 

 He soon learns that unless a large volume of grain is handled profits 

 necessarily must be meager. On the other hand, the transient buyers 

 not only give regular dealers considerable trouble through loss of 

 business but often cause an appreciable loss to the farmers. In many 

 instances, having little capital (consequently little to lose), they 

 offer prices in excess of market justifications with the hope that 

 before shipments reach a terminal market prices will have advanced 

 sufficiently to afford them a profit. When the market "breaks" 

 against them some one else must bear the loss. 



This undesirable state of affairs is created in several different ways. 

 Sometimes an arrangement is effected with a local bank or a promi- 

 nent merchant to assist in financing shipments by depositing with 

 them whatever capital the buyer may possess. The scoop-shoveler's 

 checks are then honored, the bank or merchant later receiving drafts, 

 with bills of lading attached, when shipments are made, the presump- 

 tion being that the buyer's small deposit will be sufficient to liquidate 

 any possible losses brought about by market fluctuations. Often, 

 however, the banker discovers this amount to be insufficient, on ac- 

 count of unusual market depression or unsatisfactory quality of the 

 grain, or if for some other reason payment of the draft is refused 

 at destination. At other times the buyer arranges with the farmer to 

 pay for his grain upon receipt of the return remittance, but when-the 



