GRAIN 



GRAIN 



363 



Office Inspection. — When office inspection is made, 

 deputies are sent to the tracks in the early morning 

 to secure samples from the cars destined to the 

 market, and the samples are sent to the chief in- 

 spector's office and the grade determined on the 

 basis of the sample. Some kinds of grain, notably 

 flax, are almost always given office inspection, since 

 it is difficult to determine the grade satisfactorily 

 with the hasty inspection on the track. 



Grading rules. — The rules for grades of grain 

 are much the same in all American grain markets. 

 There are slight variations from place to place, and 

 some markets have more grades or different grades 

 than others. The following samples of the grade 

 rules for corn, now in use in one of the important 

 markets, give a fair idea of the nature of such 

 rules : 



No. 1 Yellow Com. — Shall be yellow, sound, dry, 

 plump and well cleaned. 



No. 2 Yellow Corn. — Shall be three-fourths yel- 

 low, dry, reasonably clean but not plump enough 

 for No. 1. 



No. 3 Yellow Corn. — Shall be three-fourths yel- 

 low, reasonably dry and reasonably clean, but not 

 sufficiently sound for No. 2. 



No. 1 White Corn. — Shall be sound, dry, plump 

 and well cleaned. 



No. 2 White Corn.— ShaW be seven-eighths white, 

 dry, reasonably, clean, but not plump enough for 

 Nol. 



No. 3 White Corn. — Shall be seven-eighths white, 

 reasonably dry and reasonably clean, but not suffi- 

 ciently sound for No. 2. 



No. 1 Corn. — Shall be mixed corn, of choice 

 quality, sound, dry and well cleaned. 



No. 2 Corn. — Shall be mixed corn, dry and rea- 

 sonably clean, but not good enough for No. 1. 



eral interpretation, and it must rest with the chief 

 inspector as to just what shall constitute the actual 

 grade limits. The deputy inspectors are therefore 

 guided in their judgment by the chief inspector. 



Fig. 511. View of the interior of a grain warehouse on 

 the Pacific coast, showing the grain in bags. 



No. 3 Corn. — Shall be mixed corn, reasonably 

 dry and reasonably clean, but not sufficiently sound 

 for No. 2. 



No. 4 Corn. — Corn that is badly damaged, damp 

 or very dirty, shall be graded no higher than 

 No. 4. 



It will be observed that these rules are very brief 

 and rather indefinite and are thus capable of lib- 



Fig. 512. View of the interior of a large terminal elevator, 

 showing the spouts leading from the scale hoppers on the 

 floor above to the bins below. 



and he is usually guided by the commission or 

 committee which has the matter in charge at each 

 market. When either party to a transaction in 

 which a grain grade is involved is dissatisfied with 

 the decision rendered, it is usually possible to ap- 

 peal from the deputy inspector's decision and secure 

 a ruling from the chief inspector or from a board 

 of appeals. These appealed decisions constitute the 

 unwritten law of the grain inspection department. 



Importance of grading and inspecting. — The chief 

 function of grain grades, and consequently of grain 

 inspection, is to permit price quotations on grain 

 and to permit trading for future delivery. Were 

 grain grades not in use it would be difficult to 

 quote prices that had any meaning, and also to 

 make transactions for future delivery of grain, 

 and consequently grain inspection and grading is 

 a very important feature of the grain business, 

 since both transactions are a very large part of it. 

 It is customary to establish in each market a cer- 

 tain grade for each important cereal that is known 

 as the "contract grade," and in all deals and price 

 quotations this grade is the one used, unless other- 

 wise specified. 



Inspection tests and methods. — In order to be most 

 efficient, grain inspection must be exact and uni- 

 form,^ and every effort is made by those in control 

 of this work to secure the greatest accuracy and 

 uniformity possible. Many attempts have been 

 made to provide for more accurate methods of 

 inspection and grading than those now in use. A 

 chondrometer, or apparatus for determining the 

 weight per bushel of grain, has been in common use 

 with inspectors for many years. More recently, 

 the inspection of flax has been greatly improved 

 by a system of percentage grading, by which the 

 foreign material and imperfect grains are sepa- 

 rated from a sample and their percentage deter- 

 mined by weight. Still more recently, various at- 

 tempts have been made to determine accurately the 

 percentage of moisture in corn, since it has been 



