The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, December 24, 1917, Page 6

Farmers Propose New At Three Hearings In Minnesota and North Dakota They Point Out Present Injustices and Recommend Improvements to U. S. Bureau Officials BY RALPH HARMON EFINITE ways in which the federal grain grades could be improved were presented to C. J. Brand, head of the fed- eral bureau of markets, when he came to the Northwest to conduct hearings on the grades during the sec- ond week in December. Hearings were held at Minneapolis, -Fargo and Bis- marck, from December 6 to 10. Nearly 1000 farmers attended, as well as coun- try grain buyers and representatives of the big grain handlers and flour mill companies of the Twin Cities. All parties were prepared in ad- vance to present their views. The members of the grain trade held sev- eral meetings and adopted : recom- mendations in which for the most part they stood by the present grades. Sixty farmers of Minnesota, the day before the hearings began, met in St. Paul and drew up some general recommendations in which they asked that grade designations to distinguish northern hard spring wheat be restor- ed; that more moisture be allowed; that wild peas and cockle be considered separable and that weights per bushel be reestablished as’they were last year under the Minnesota inspection. The farmers of North Dakota held three meetings, one a week before the hearings commenced, one the day be- fore, and another the day the hearings were scheduled, while Mr. Brand was on his way from Minneapolis to Fargo on a delayed train. They held consul- tation with President E. F. Ladd of the North Dakota.Agricultural college and J. A. McGovern, chief deputy grain inspector for North Dakota, and decid- ed upon specific changes they wished to recommend. About 60 farmers adopted these recommendations the day before the hearing, and 300 or more on the day the hearing was held be- fore Mr. Brand_arrived. FARMERS PUT FORWARD DEFINITE SUGGESTIONS ~ D - The North Dakota recemmendations put forward at both Fargo and Bis- marck were more definite than those adopted in Minnesota, although there was no conflict between them. They asked that the test weight for durum wheat be made the same as the spring wheat grades; that the special grade for “humpback” wheat be eliminated; that “mixed wheat” be allowed to con- tain as much as 10 per cent of wheat of some other variety, instead of 6 per cent, and that all wheat having more than 10 per cent be designated as “sample wheat”, Instead of the multiplicity of grades _that now exists they recommended that only three grades be established, No. 1, with a weight of 57 pounds per bushel instead of 59; No. 2 with a weight of b4 pounds; and No. 3 with a weight of 51 pounds. Wheat lower- than 51 pounds per bushel they asked be class- ed as “sample wheat”. The Minne- apolis hearing brought out demands for a lowering of the test weights but no specific classification. The North Dakota recommendations regarding moisture were that wheat be_ not penalized for moisture up to 15 per cent, and that all grades be allow- ed to carry a uniform amount, while moisture be abolished as a factor in determining the grades. At present moisture is an important factor in determining grades, and is not allowed in excess of 13% per cent in No. 1 while 157 is the maximum for No. 5. Minnesota farmers asked practically the same but did not insist on more than 14% in No. 1. They recommended that No. 1 be al- lowed 3 per cent of inseparable weed seed; No. 2 be allowed 5 per cent; and No. 3, 7 per cent; and that the amount of ‘‘damaged kernels” be broadecned to run from 5 per cent to 15 per cent ac- cording to grade. More than 7 per cent of inseparables should carry the wheat over into “sample wheat.” “SAMPLE WHEAT” FOR PEA LADEN GRAIN More than 3 per cent of wild peas, kinghead, darnel or wild rose should classify wheat as ‘“sample,” and the maximum amount to be allowed in No. 1, either singly or combined, they recommended, should not exceed 1 of 1 per cent. The Minnesota farmers went further than this in regard to wild peas and demanded that they be no longer classed as inseparables, as the millers are taking them out of wheat at trivial expense to the amount of tens of thousands of bushels per ~ S e S A S, e e — day, and the peas thus extracted are being sold in the market at all the way from 10 cents per pound as seed, to $32 per ton for feed and other pur- poses. The Minnesota farmers added a concluding cfause to their recom- mendations in which they declared: “Whereas the working of the federal grain grades is causing financial loss to the wheat growers; it is resolved that unless -the Minnesota grades be restored, or amended so as to correct the injustices that now prevail, we will be compelled to devote our energies to the produc- tion of crops other than wheat.” Simi- lar sentiments were voiced by several farmers at Minneapolis and@ Fargo.. Three hunhdred farmers gathered at the old postoffice building in Minne- apolis by the hour set for the hearing, but Mr. Brand’s train was late, and they went into informal ses- sion and called upon Frank L. Carey, head of the food administration grain corporation, to explain the corpora- tion's workings. Mr, Carey urged the farmers to submit' to the present grades without criticism. CAREY ASKS FARMERS TO SUBMIT QUIETLY “We didn’t hope to please every- body,” he said, “but we do ask you patriotically to forego Jyour little dis- satisfactions and let it go as your bit in bringing the country out of its pres- ent condition.” Grain grades and price fixing were regarded by the farmers as closely allied and many of their questions re- lated to prices as much as to grades. J. H. Stadden of the Northwestern Consolidated Milling company, head of the discount committee that fixes prices on all wheat under No, 2, ex- plained details of the new price fixing committee, and also later in the formal hearing be presented the grain trade's side of the case. Mr. Stadden said that all wheat that grades lower than No. 2 comes to his committee for price fixing, and that the committee fixes a price ranging from one cent under No. 2 down to whatever they regard as a proper price. The general belief had been before that such grain was submitted on sample and buyers were the federal grades be ’ . allowed to bid for it, remaining within the federal fixed prices. Mr. Brand did not arrive until nearly 2 p. m., and after his arrival the first two hours of the hearing were taken up with consideration of corn grades and minor questions in which the farmers were not greatly interested. As the afternon wore on, Col. R. A, Wilkinson, head of the Minnesota state union of Equity, attempted to introduce the general recommendations decided upon the previous day by the farmers including the resolution just quoted, but Mr. Brand cut him short and forbade the presentation. C. L, Palmer, a farmer or Sleepy Eye, Minn,, asked if the program could not be varied and the important questions be taken up before the farmers had to leave. ARBITRARY RULE LEAVES FARMERS OUT “We can’t discuss them now and take up the same questions again later —we'll press along,” replied Mr. Brand, ‘I'm sorry I can't stay, but I'll have to be going,” said A. F. Timmerman, a farmer. “The farmers are not satisfied and the only way you can get their sentiment is to let them be heard now while they are here. Otherwise they’ll all be gone and only the millers and commission men be left.” “We can’t help that” replied Mr. Brand. “If the farmers don't stay for the meeting, it is not our fault. We can’'t take it out in the country to them. You are not blaming us because our train was late, are you?” As a result, two-thirds of the farm- ers were gone by the time the dis- cussion reached the important features, such as moisture, dockage, insepar- ables, weight per bushel, etc,, although the millers and the elevator men were represented. . Discussion of the wild pea problem lasted the greater part of the after- noon. Many farmers declared that the wild peas are being separated from their wheat, after it has been graded down for wild peas, which are classed as “inseparable”, and the grain raised several grades and brought up 10:to 15 cents per bushel at trivial cost. They told of wild pea meal being on sale at feed stores, of a demand for wild@ peas | 'THE GOLD TRUST TWINS [ We submit this cartoon with due nationally advertised product. THEY Do akl. MY DIRTY WORK —Drawn expressly for the Leader by Billican apologies to the proprietors of a well-known PAGE SIX Grades for seed as a cover crop at 10 cents per pound, and of the large quantities that must be taken out of the wheat, according to percentage figures shown by the millers themselves. In this con- nection they drew from Mr. Stadden the statement that about one-third of the wheat his committee grades con- tains wild peas. WHAT THEY DO WITH WILD PEAS One miller said he had never heard of wild pea meal. Mr, Stadden and others said that the usual way to get rid of wild peas was to dilute the pea- iaden wheat with a quantity of wheat free from peas until the percentage of peas remaining in the mixture was low enough to mill. Later in the hearings F. M. Crosby, buyer for the Washburn- Crosby Milling company, who was ab- sent at the first discussion of this question, told Mr. Brand that his come pany cleans 10,000 bushels of wheat a day of wild peas and sells the peas for $32 per ton, in carload lots. F. M. Samuelson, a farmer of La Fayette, Minn., said that there is a demang for these wild peas as a cover crop in Mississippi and that the Uni- versity of Minnesota last year was endeavoring to fill some carload orders at 10 cents per pound for that purpose. Mr. Brand disputed this and said that the peas would be useless as a cover crop, and that he was ramiliar with Mississippi and knew that wild peas were not used there for a cover crop. Mr. Samuelson later got corroboration for his statement. Basing their claim upon the admis- sion that wild peas are being regularly separated from grain, several farmers asked that the presence of these be regarded as dockage and that instead of grading grain down for their pres- ence as though they could not be taken ° out, they be classed as flax, mustard, big barley and other grains that can be separated, and are consumed in feed mixtures in great quantities PENALIZE FARMERS TO MAKE THEM GOOD L. R. Stevens, buyer for the Pills- bury Mills company, declared the farmers ought to be penalized by severe grading for wild peas and other kinds of foul seed, as that was the only way to make good farmers out of them. "~ Farmers were agreed that the mois- ture content has been placed so low that it is difficult to come down to a point where wheat can get into No. 1 grade. They recommended that mois- ture be wholly abandoned as a grade making characteristic, and that it be fixed as not less than 1414 per cent for all grades. "Mr. Brand replied that the present maximum of 1314 per cent al- lowed is due to the fact that the pure food law will not permit more than that amount in flour. When test weight per bushel was reached, the protests were general, Farmers who had been farming in the Northwest for 15 to 40 Yyears said that in all their experience they had never hgd but three or four crops that would vield wheat heavy enough to make No. 1 grade under the federal standards. Mr. Brand replied that the grades had been established upon examination of 50,000 samples of all the crops from 1911 to 1916 inclusive, and that these showed a considerable amount of 59 pound wheat, the weight now required for No. 1. He cited figures to show that only a small part of the 1917 crop has been graded down because of fail- ure to meet the weight, 3924 cars out of 24,908, 3 Figures of this kind, showing that only a small portion of the crop had been graded on weight, inseparables, or moisture, were frequently cited by Mr. Brand in defense of the present grades. He also compared the statis- tics showing that a bigger percentage of the 1917 crop graded No. 1 under federal grades, than of the 1916 crop under other standards, BRAND COMPARES 1916 WITH 1917 CROP : To this many farmers and elevator men replied that the 1916 crop was one of the lightest known in the his- tory of the Northwest, ranging from 40 pounds to 53 pounds per bushel, while the 1917 crop is the heaviest ever harvested and runs from 57 to 63 pounds per bushel. Both Mr, Brand, and his assistant, J. W. T. Duvall, maintained, howeyer, that the weight (Continued on page 18)