The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, July 26, 1917, Page 4

More Proof of the Grain Stea Sanderson, Agricultural College Miller, Gives Results of Experiments That Confirm Former Bulletins by Dr. E. F. Ladd ROOF that the spread in prices between the highest and the lowest grades of wheat are not justified on any basis of actual value, enunciated by the North Dakota Agricultural college last year on data of the 1916 rusted crop, is added to in a new bulletin in the wheat series just published, containing the data for the normal year, 1915. The bulletin of last year, No. 119, which became famous for its plain disclosure of the facts about “feed D” wheat, grading, flour yield, etc.,, was written by Dr. E. F. Ladd upon a large num- ber of samples. The new bulletin is No. 122 and is written by Thomas Sanderson, miller at the college, and the conclusions are all his own. Mr. Sanderson speaks with the experience of a long career in commercial milling, and from a lifetime spent in the wheat business. The new bulletin bears out all the facts that have been gleaned in nine years of practical milling of wheat at the college, Mr. Sanderson says, SO that the argument used last year against Dr. Ladd’s bulletin, No. 119, that its conclusions were wrong be- cause based upon the crop of a bad year, are exploded. Mr. Sanderson’s bulletin shows sev- eral things: First, that the test weight per bushel is no proper criterion of value in wheat; second, that the mar- ket quotations for wheat indicate an unjustifiable discrimination against the so-called lower grades; third, that the proper criterion of wheat value is the money return of the products made from it; and fourth, that the big millers have long been wise to these facts, and have acted accordingly, while they kept the public and the small millers in ig- norance of the fact that the lower grades of wheat make flour practically equal to the higher grades from what- ever point it is judged. LITTLE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE GRADES Large numbers of samples of wheat from the bumper crop of 1915 were used in arriving at the conclusions reached. This wheat was all normal. It came from many parts of North Dakota and embraced nearly all grades and varieties. It came to the college mill in the same way wheat gets to the big mills at Minneapolis, good, bad and indifferent.. Sanderson milled it all, kept track of every sample, cleaned up after every run, and stored his figures away. The conclusions were not drawn until all the data compiled in its pro- per classification showed some strik- ing facts. Mr. Sanderson first analyzed all his Bamples with regard to variety. He took all the Bluestem he had and worked it over separately, then all the Fife, Velvet Chaff and Marquis. He wanted to find out what differences wheat of the same variety or type would show between its own lower and higher grades. So he took all his No. 1 Bluestem samples and tabulated their data; then all the No. 2 Bluestem, No. Thomas Sanderson, miller at the North Dakota Agricultural college, and au- thor of a striking new bulletin on wheat prices and grades. The North Dakota Agricultural college mill, where astounding facts as to robbery of farmers of their wheat by the mill« ing combine have been proved. 3 and so on down through all the grades, and he had a lot of samples. When he had all Bluestem spread out in tables, he began to study the columns, and he found that the market value of 100 pounds of No. 1 Northern Bluestem (according to average stand- ard quotations for the first week of December, 1915) was $1.71, and that the market value of 100 pounds of the products from this same kind of wheat was. $2.23, giving a gross gain of 30 per cent. He found the value of 100 pounds of raw No. 2 Northern Bluestem wheat was $1.64, and its products $2.21, a gain of 34 per cent. He kept on and he found that the “lower” down the grades he went the higher became the.percentage of gain by all known ways of determining quality—with what differences there were sometimes slightly in favor of the lower grades, as for instance in ab- sorption of water and loaf volume. And what he found true for Bluestem, he found true for Fife, Marquis and Velvet Chaff. Concerning the slight differences he found Mr. Sanderson has this to say in his bulletin: “A comparative study of these data will show very little difference in either milling or baking quality. In fact, the differences might be considered within the scope of experimental error—when considering the average results of the type regardless of grade.” He goes on to summarize these slight differences for the several dif- The trick of using a test weight per bushel as a basis for prices of wheat is here shown to have no relation to the actual value of the wheat based on the selling price of the products made from it. between the unmilled wheat and its finished products, flour, bran, shorts, middlings, screenings, ete. No. 3 Blue- stem, for instance, showed a gain of 39 per cent, No. 4, 44 per cent, and re- jected Bluestem, 49 per cent. MAKE 49 PER CENT PROFIT ON “REJECTED” That is going pretty strong, making a profit of 49 per cent by grinding re- jected wheat into flour and by-prod- ucts, while telling the farmers that it was no good. But Sanderson knew this rejected wheat flour he was making was prac- tically as good as the flour from other grades of the same type wheat, for all he had to do was to look into some of the other columns on the Bluestem ta- ble, There he found that No. 1 Northern Bluestem flour gave a color score of 93, and texture score of 92 on the aver- age; that No. 2 gave a color score of 94 and texture of 93; that No. 3 gave a color score of 89 and texture of 92; No. 4 gave a color score of 80 and tex- ture of 87—all this when each grade was ground alone entirely without any other wheat to make up for any slight deficiency. In the amount of water absorbed, which is a big point in de- termining the quality of flour, he found all grades practically the same, the percentage ranging from 59 to 60 per cent, while the loaf volume ranged from 2268 for No. 1 Northern grade down to 2246 for rejected—that is the standard sized loaf filled that many cubic centimeters of space. ‘Whichever way he studied Bluestem wheat from No. 1 Northern down to rejected, he found there was hardly any difference in its quality as shown ferent types of wheat, showing that in amount of flour produced there is only 1% per cent difference, and that while Fife and Marquis tie for first place here with Velvet Chaff second and Bluestem third, Bluestem is second and Velvet Chaff third in loss in mill- ing (Fife and Marquis again tying for first place) while in baking results, Marquis is first, Velvet Chaff second, Fife third, and Bluestem fourth. WHERE THE LOWER GRADES ARE LOWER But there was one point in which the higher grades were superior to the lower ones—the amount of flour pro=~ duced. Thus, No. 1 Bluestem yielded on an average 71 per cent of flour; No. 2 yielded 69 per cent; No. 3 yielded 68 per cent; No. 4 yielded 67 per cent; and rejected 64, fractions of a per cent being omitted here in all these cases, although Mr. Sanderson uses his deci- mal fractions out to four points. Also the loss in milling was found to in- crease as the grades were lowered. Relative to this point, Mr. Sanderson says: “It thus appears that the grades are fairly well established when considered only from the amount of flour pro- duced, and loss in milling. A compari- son of the baking results shows very little difference as a whole between grades; the factor showing any marked difference being that of color, and some of. the factors in the lower grades show better than in the higher grades. The’ scoring of all grades is well within the scoring of straight flour in the com- mercial laboratory. “The manufacturer of flour need not be afraid to use some wheat from all of the grades coming to 2 PAGE FOUR - him. As a matter of fact, the wheat going on the market each day is usually all taken, and thcre is sel- dom any accumulation of any con- siderable amount of any grade over that of any other grade.. Why is this so? Because the wheat going " on the market is bought regardless of the amount of any grade, and an accumulation of any grade soon af- fects the price of that grade, and as soon as the price is lower, the tendency of the industry is to in- crease the amount of wheat of this grade in the run going to the mill, which keeps the stock of all grades down. AT THE END OF THE CROP YEAR IF THERE IS ANY WHEAT LEFT IN THE TER- MINAL ELEVATORS, IT IS OF THE HIGHER GRADE; SHOW- ING THAT THE WHEAT OF THE LOWER GRADES HAS ALL BEEN DISPOSED OF AND THE FLOUR MADE FROM THEM GONE IN TO HELP MAKE THE TOTAL WITHOUT ANY QUES- TION AS TO ANY DIFFERENCE IN QUALITY.” These conclusions were based upon the wheat of a normal crop year, not upon any alleged freakishness of rusted wheat in 1916. Commenting elsewhere in the same bulletin on the great difference in prices between the different grades, Mr, Sanderson says: “A wider variation is sometimes found within the grades than there is between the average of No. 1 Hard and rejected in any type. If this is a com=- mon condition, then the system of grading is a mere guess, and the fac< tors employed to designate value are largely fictitious or assumed. This same point is borne out in the results of the work done at this station for each of the nine years during which this work has been in progress.” SPREAD BETWEEN WHEAT AND FLOUR PRICE Any contention that the wheats of lighter test weight per bushel approach the heavier wheats in the amount of flour produced, has always been met by the millers with the flat assertion that of course wheat weighing 46 pounds would not make as much flour as wheat weighing 60 pounds. Mr. Sanderson stopped this objection by. first determining what 100 pounds of wheat would produce, regardless of the test weight, for every one knows that wheat is all bought by weight, and not by the measured bushel. It was on this basis that he showed how nearly the lower grades approached the high- er ones in quality, Taking it for granted that the millers were able-to pay the regular price for No. 1 Northern grades, and were mak- ing a profit out of the No. 1 wheat they bought, Mr. Sanderson compiled in a nutshell a table that showed that they ought to be paying far more for the lower grades, whether the price was figured on the test weight per bushel or the products made from the wheat. He averaged the high and low quota=