8
THE SUNDAY OREGONTAN, PORTLAND, MAT 21, 1922
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Columbia River
Grain Grades High
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BY DeWITT HARRY.
PHENOMENAL gains in grain ship
ments from this port have served to
open people's eyea as never before
to the importance of this industry. How
ever, it is extremely doubtful if one per
son in a hundred has any comprehensive
idea of how grain exports are handled.
It is an accepted fact, about which few
persons bother, that some standard must
be set for the grading of grain, for it
stands to reason that there must be dif
ferent varieties of wheat and other
grains. What are these standards? Who
Is responsible for them? How are they
established and how maintained?
It might here be said that the real
backbone of the grain export industry is
proper grading. Wheat is bought in Port
land by agents on the other side of the
Flobe. 1 stands to reason that these men
thousands of miles away have no means
cf inspecting their purchase. They must
know what they are buying, and here is
where grain inspection serves the local
dealer. With accepted standards the
foreign purchaser knows just what he is
purchasing. He has the privilege of in
specting sample with the assurance that
the parcels he buys will be up to the
standard of the samples. In the case of
Portland it might be said that the usual
cargo dispatched from this port is often
found on arrival at destination to even be
superior to regulation grade samples.
i Record Is of Best Here.
This is the finest kind of a record for
any community to have, that their prod
uct is better than the average and that
their agents supply more than is bar
gained for. It is this most excellent
reputation that has resulted in Portland'a
achieving its prominence in the grain ex
porting field, the class of merchandise
purchased here is dependdable. Any grain"
dealer, no matter in what part of the
world he has his trade, knows that a
Portland cargo will be fully up to grade
or a little better.
the port.
Eternal vigilance is the role adopted
.by the state public service commission,
which has charge of most gra'in inspection
on the Columbia river. The state inspec
tion forces work in conjunction with the
federal inspectors and grade all the grain
rtiat Arrives in the port, the grading be
ing for local purchase and then later for
export. It is their duty to watch ship
ments so closely that unscrupulous deal
ers and growers cannot mix their lots and
sends in cars that, while appearing ty
have a high grade of grain are really
filled with poorer stuff. The fruit dealer
long ago tried the same game with his
boxes of berries, placing the big ones on
top and the smaller ones or spoiled fruit
telow. The same thing is possible with
grain shipments if the cars are not closely
inspected. ' .
Primary Market I Aim.
WTith Portland now fighting to be de
clared a primary grain market, and stand
ing in sixth' place or better as an export
:ng center for the entire United States,
the importance of holding the grades at
par or above is evident. ' The present
day grades are a far cry from those of
the old days when the first cargo from
this port was called "Walla Walla hard"
on the English board reports. Nowa
days the grades are all white wheat with
even the club classification dispensed
with. There are three sub-classe3 . or
white wheat, hard, soft and western and
the name "Walla," given a black eye ry
smutty "and dirty cargoes of years gone
by, has been dropped completely. If
Portland can win its fight and become a
primary market it will mean the listing
of the weekly visible supply of wheat and
flour on the Chicago exchange and these
figures will be published and broadcasted
by the big market. It will put Portland
on the map with a rating as a real market
center, and with the continued Increase
in grain shipments, and the indication for
Sfejmsrj StvT"tscou ?S7y J"orrrT?j'&' Z, o&cfyrr 800,006
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even a larger and better market in the
future, the chances for this rating are
excellent.
The law making the state department
was passed at the 1917 legislature. The
purpose was to prevent fraud in the
handling of grain and hay, establishing
and preserving standards for grain and
nay, regulating warehousemen, millers,
shippers and buyers of grain and hay, and i
prescribing penalties fbr the violation of
the law. All standards in use and ef
fect by the United States department of
agriculture, or hereafter to become effec
tive, were adopted as standards to stab
iish grades. . I
Law Expanded by State.
During the four years of the life Of
he department numerous changes in the
law have been made to meet the grow
ing requirements of the trade, "hold
tracks" have been provided by the rail
road companies for inspection at the re
quest of the public service commission;
scales installed for weighing, and anyone
desiring can secure a certified weight cer
tificate for any commodity desired.
A floor laboratory has been installed.
where- the analysis of flour can be ob
tained and certificates issued that are ac
cepted in all the markets of the world.
The department is also checking and
weighing cargoes of flour, certifying to
quality and condition; weighing incoming
cargoes of hemp, rubber, copra, sulphur,
oil, seeds, flax and in fact any commodity,
upon request. The commission has an
expert scale mechanic on the force of in
spectors and all scales over which certi
fied weights are made by the department
are Inspected and sealed as accurate,
thereby supplying a much needed want to
the port facilities.
Inspection points made by the public
service committee are Portland and As
toria. All cars of grain upon arrival in
Portland or Astoria are reported to the
department by the railroad making the
line haul, and are placed upon the "hold
track" for inspection. After inspection
is made the car is either diverted to
some out of town point or placed at
warehouse or mill for unloading. Eighty
five per cent of the cars of wheat received
is in sacks and 15 per cent in bulk. The
amount of hulk wheat shipped depends
entirely upon the price of sacks, as the
farmers and country warehouses are not
provided with suitable facilities for
handling bulk grain, and when sacks are
cheap they resort to the old sack method,
when sacks are high and an additional
expense to handle in bulk is justified in
spite of facilities then they ship in bulk.
On the sacked cars two men are sup
plied by the department to sample and
weigh the load. The sampler remains
with the car, takes the seal record, car
condition, and secures any information
pertintent to the shipment which might
be of . assistance in settling claims for
shortage if any there be. He also takes
a sample from each sack as it is unloaded,
separating different kinds of wheat if
the car be mixed, or if the same con
tains any inferior wheat, damaged wheat,
smutty wheat or inseparable foreign ma
terial. The weigher weighs this wheat
in lots from information of the sampler,
keeps and totals the weigh sheet and en
ters any remarks given him by the cam-'
pier. The sample is then taken to the
office and grading room for analysis and
certificate, and held for 60 days to give
any aggrieved persons an opportunity to
appeal the grade.
V. 8. Supervises Tests.
The United States supervision bureau
has supervision over the work of sam
pling and grading, issuing licenses to the
inspectors who make the grades, , and
hearing appeals both in intra-state and
inter-state shipments.
Bulk wheat is sampled in the car be
fore the wheat Is moved, with a 60-inch
bulk grain tryer, with a hollow center
divided off into ten compartments, which
is probed into the car five times at each
end and the center of the car, laid out on
a cloth and examined by the sampler, to
ascertain if there has been any attempt
made to plug the car with some inferior
or damaged wheat as is sometimes at
tempted. The wheat is then placed in
the sample sack and air tight container
and taken to the office with identifica
tion preserved as on sacked grain.. The
sample is graded in the same manner as
sacked grain and certificate issued. The
fee for weighing, sampling, and grading
a sacked car of grain is 6c per ton, and a
bulk car 4c per ton. Portland received
almost as many cars of grain during the
first six months of the 1921-1922 crop
year as it did during the whole 1920
1921 cfop year.
Increase Here Notable.
The increase In the receipts at Port
land is attributed to the Columbia basin
rate case decision. The increase to Port
land from the Columbia basin affected by
the decision being 146 per cent over
1920-1921 receipts, and those receipts
were the greatest since Portland became
an exporting center. The receipts at
Pugt Sound Points have decreased cor
respondingly and during the past six
months Portland has received nearly
twice as much wheat as all Washington
state points put together.
The department supervises the loading,
weighing and grading of all export
shipments of wheat from the ports of
Astoria and Portland, issuing certificates
of weight and grade on the same under '
"the federal grades. There was exported"
during, the crop year 1921, 24,731,891
bushels of wheat. Out of this total ex
ported 91 per cent went to European
points, 5 per cent to the orient and 4 per
cent to South America. The total amount
of wheat exported for the first six months
of the 1922 crop year was 23,197,337
" (Concluded on Fagd 8.)