lots and the flours obtained were put through three different baking
tests.
The conclusion reached was that there did not appear to be much
difference in the value of the different grades of wheat. Even the
"Feed" sample proved by no means useless for bread-making purposes,
either in yield or quality; the only thing that rendered it less
available for bakers' use was its darker color. All who saw the loaves
were surprised at the quality of this bread.
The tests on these 1903 samples confirmed the farmers in their opinion
that on 1903 wheat the spread in price between No. 1 Hard and No. 4 was
not in harmony with the milling quality. From No. 1 Hard the amount of
flour obtained was 70.8 per cent. as against 68 per cent. from the No.
4 grade. The large percentage of stook-frozen grain that went into the
lower grades because it was technically debarred from the higher ones
no doubt raised the milling value, it was thought, of all the grades
that year.
The Department of Agriculture for the Territories therefore decided to
repeat the tests with 1904 wheat. The samples with which Professor
Harcourt was furnished represented the grain just as it was sold by the
farmer and graded either at the elevator or by the Chief Grain
Inspector; it was not a composite sample of the commercial grades. The
second tests practically confirmed the work done the previous year.
The milling, chemical and baking tests failed to show very wide
differences in the composition and milling value of the grades
submitted. The conclusion reached was that the difference in
composition and milling value was nearly as great between samples of
any one grade as between the various grades.
The farmers began to feel that it would be a good thing to have a
representative at Winnipeg to watch the grading of their cars and to
look after their interests generally. The Department of Agriculture
for the Territories was asked by the Sintaluta grain growers to appoint
a man and W. H. Gaddes was commissioned to act for two weeks. Then the
farmers began to wonder if they could not send down a man of their own;
at one of their meetings the question was put and those present
subscribed five dollars apiece for the purpose.
Thus it came about that on the 7th of January, 1905, there stepped from
the train at the C. P. R. depot in Winnipeg a man who looked no
different from any one of a dozen other farmers who daily reached the
city, tanned of cheek and brigh
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