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 lving 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 
