36 BULLETIN 558, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 



When the grain is ready to load, care should be taken to have the 

 cars in proper condition to carry the shipment to destination without 

 leaking. The general condition of the car itself must first be con- 

 sidered. If this is satisfactory, all cracks or holes through which 

 grain might leak must be stopped with boards, paper, or burlap. 

 Careful attention must be given to the manner in which grain doors 

 are inserted, that they may not, under the weight of the grain, shift 

 their position or bulge at the top or bottom or where sections are 

 joined. Detailed consideration has been paid to this subject by rail- 

 roads, shippers, and receivers in recent years, with resulting improve- 

 ment, but there is opportunity for further progress in this direction. 

 Traffic managers at several of the principal grain receiving markets 

 of the country state that a large percentage of the cars arriving at 

 the present time are leaking and doubtless many others that show no 

 evidence of leakage when standing on sidings at destination leak 

 under the severe strain of road handling. 



INCORRECT GRADING. 



While nearly all operators of country elevators admitted consider- 

 able loss, caused by the difference found to exist between buying and 

 selling grades, which, in some instances, was considered in fixing 

 their margin of profit, not one has been interviewed who possessed 

 definite figures on the loss from this source extending over any con- 

 siderable length of time. Occasionally figures were obtained covering 

 shipments for a short period which showed the loss to be from one- 

 half to 3 cents per bushel, averaging about 1 cent. One shipper 

 purchased four lots of damaged wheat of the 1915 crop from farmers, 

 three of which tested, respectively, 48 pounds, damp and sprouted; 

 51| pounds, damp and sprouted ; and 53 pounds, damp and sprouted. 

 These three lots were bought at a discount of 10 cents per bushel, 

 while the fourth lot (which tested 58 pounds and had been exposed 

 to rain on several occasions) was purchased without discount. The 

 four lots were mixed and shipped to a terminal market where the 

 mixture graded No. 4 and was taken on contract at a discount of 10 

 cents per bushel, resulting in a considerable loss to the country 

 merchant. 



At the request of the Department of Agriculture 50 samples of 

 hard winter wheat were taken at an elevator during a period of two 

 and one-half months at the beginning of the 1915 crop movement, 

 This elevator bought wheat on a 59-pound test weight basis, with 

 the deduction of 1 cent for the first pound under that weight and 

 1 cent for each additional one-half pound. A record was maintained 

 of the test weight of the 50 loads as taken by the elevator and samples 

 were sent to the Office of Markets and Rural Organization. Here the 



