52 ESSAYS ON WHEAT 



]^ew York, marks a curious return to the historic condi- 

 tions which were so familiar to the Selkirk settlers. 



V. The Shipment of Bulk Wheat Through the 

 Panama Canal 



The opening of the Panama Canal has presented the 

 possibility of shipping Canadian wheat to Europe from 

 ports on the Pacific Coast. However, until a year ago, no 

 attempt to ship wheat in bulk via the Panama Canal had 

 been made, and it was not known whether or not bulk wheat 

 could be safely transported through the tropics by this 

 route without arriving at its destination in a heating con- 

 dition.1* Dr. F. J. Birchard and Mr. A. W. Alcock, of 

 the Dominion Grain Eesearch Laboratory, therefore car- 

 ried out a test experiment on bulk shipment in the fall 

 of 1917. 



One hundred thousand bushels of wheat for shipment 

 were collected at various points in Alberta, graded by gov- 

 ernment inspectors, carefully tested for moisture, and then 

 stowed in bulk in the hold of a steamer at Vancouver. 

 The forward hold, into which the main bulk of the wheat 

 was loaded, was one hundred feet long, fifty feet wide, and 

 eighteen feet six inches deep. Each parcel of wheat of a 

 particular grade, after being delivered to the vessel, was 

 trimmed so that its surface was practically horizontal, and 

 then separating cloths were spread over the top so as to 

 divide it from the succeeding layer. Eows of electrical 

 resistance thermometers were embedded in each layer of 

 the wheat so that all changes of temperature in every part 

 16 For a number of years wheat has been shipped south from Seattle 

 and Portland (Oregon) round the Cape to Europe in bags. Doubt- 

 less, however, the ventilation of wheat in bags is better than that of 

 wheat in bulk. Wheat is shipped in bags from Australia and India 

 to England. 



