GRAIH 



GRASSES 



365 



the Rocky mountains, is a highly specialized type 

 of building. (Figs. 512-514.) It consists essen- 

 tially of a series of bins set close together, with 

 hoisting, weighing and distributing machinery 

 located above, and with cleaning machinery and 

 loading devices below. Formerly these elevators 

 were built almost entirely of wood, often covered 

 with corrugated metal. More recently they are 

 being built of steel, of concrete and of tile, so as 

 to render them more nearly fireproof. 



When grain is received at an elevator it is 

 hoisted at once to the top, usually by means of 

 long belts which carry iron buckets or scoops. 

 These buckets dump the grain into receiving bins, 

 from which it is drawn into the hoppers of scales 

 for weighing. The weighing of grain in elevators 

 has been developed to a very high degree of accu- 

 racy, so that it is possible to weigh a thousand 

 bushels at a time with an error of less than one- 

 tenth of one per cent. After the grain is weighed, 

 it is drawn from the scale hoppers into the storage 

 bins, which stand below the scales ; or, in some of ■ 

 the modern storehouses, as, for example, the one 

 shown in Fig. 513, it is drawn out onto a broad 

 transfer belt, which is simply a rubber-coated can- 

 vas belt, from three to four feet in width, which 

 runs over concave pulleys in such a way as to 

 carry grain on its upper surface. When it is desired 

 to clean grain or to load it out of an elevator, it 

 may be drawn out of the storage bins from the 

 bottom ; if it is desired to move it from one part 

 of the elevator, it is drawn out on the transfer belt, 

 which runs below the bins, and is carried from one 

 point to another, to be hoisted again and emptied 

 into another bin at the top. In this way bulk grain 

 is handled very rapidly and very cheaply. It is pos- 

 sible, for instance, to move 15,000 to 20,000 bushels 

 of grain in an hour over a single transfer belt fifty 

 inches wide. 



From the standpoint of their relations to the 

 public, there are two general types of elevators, — 

 the so-called public warehouses and the private 

 warehouses. In view of the fact that grain in 

 storage represents an investment of capital that is 

 not active or bearing interest, it is often desirable 

 to use it as a basis for loans of money. In order 

 that the amount and quality of the grain thus 

 stored may be given an oflicial guarantee, there 

 are, in the larger grain markets, registered or 

 public warehouses in which any person may store 

 grain of any grade that will not deteriorate during 

 a reasonable period of time. The grower, owner or 

 broker may receive from the elevator manager a 

 certificate of storage which states the amount and 

 quality of grain stored, and this may be certified 

 to by an official, representing the local grain trade 

 organization or, in some cases, the state grain 

 commission, and when so certified this certificate 

 serves as collateral for loans. In this way, stored 

 grain is relieved from bearing at least a part of 

 the interest on the investment which it represents. 

 Elevators in which the grain is stored merely for 

 cleaning purposes or for immediate transfer are 

 not registered and they are known as private 

 warehouses. 



Literature. 



The reader should consult Lyon and Montgomery, 

 Examining and Grading Grains (1907), Ginn & Co., 

 for student laboratory methods ; Hunt, Cereals in 

 America (1904), Orange Judd Co.; Cobb, Grain 

 Elevators, Department of Agriculture, Sidney, New 

 South Wales, Miscellaneous Publications, 452 ; Bul- 

 letin No. 41, Bureau of Plant Industry, United 

 States Department of Agriculture, The Commercial 

 Grading of Corn, by the author. See also references 

 to literature under the specific grain crops. 



GRASSES. Poacece or Graminece. Figs. 515-565. 

 By A. S. Hitchcock. 



Annual or perennial herbs with characteristic 

 narrow leaves and round or flattened, jointed, 

 usually hollow stems. In the bamboos, the stems 

 are woody and may reach the height of one hun- 

 dred feet or more. The stems or culms are solid at 

 the nodes or joints and usually hollow between, 

 but may be pithy, as in the Indian corn and other 

 large species. The basal part of the leaf envelops 

 the stem, forming the sheath. The blades are 

 parallel - veined. The fiowers are inconspicuous, 

 solitary or several together in spikelets, and these 

 spikelets variously arranged in spikes or panicles. 

 The flowers have no proper perianth but are in- 

 cluded between scales in two ranks. A spikelet 

 consists of a short axis bearing at the base two 

 empty scales or glumes (empty glumes of some 

 authors) ; above these are one or more flowers, each 

 in the axis of a scale called the lemma (flowering 

 or floral glume of some authors); between the flower 

 and the axis is a two-keeled scale, the palea. 



The flower consists of a pistil and usually three 

 stamens. The pistil consists of a one-celled ovary 

 and two styles and feathery stigmas. The seed is 

 usually grown fast to the pericarp, forming a 

 grain, and it may also be closely united with the 

 lemma and palea, as in the oat. The spikelet is 

 one-flowered in Agrostis and Phleum, several-flow- 

 ered in Poa and Triticum. In some genera, such 

 as Panicum, the lower lemma is empty or contains 

 only stamens. The spikelet appears then to have 

 three empty glumes. The inflorescence or flower- 

 cluster is a spike in wheat and a panicle in the oat, 

 while in timothy (Phleum) the panicle is so con- 

 tracted as to appear as a spike. The glumes and 

 lemmas may bear bristles or awns on the tip or . 

 back, as in barley. The staminate and pistillate 

 flowers are in separate parts of the same plant 

 (monoBcious) in corn, and may even be in separate 

 plants (dicEcious), as in Buffalo grass and Texas 

 blue-grass. 



Plants often produce creeping stems below the 

 surface of the ground, by which they spread and 

 form a sod. These rootstocks resemble roots but 

 are jointed like stems and bear scale-like leaves. 

 Familiar examples are Johnson - grass and blue- 

 grass. Perennial grasses which do not bear root- 

 stocks tend to grow in bunches or tussocks, and 

 are known as bunch-grasses. Orchard-grass is of 

 this kind. 



This article is restricted' to a botanical discussion 



