kilopascal wrote:
....
> It is amazing that people would go out of their way to do it as difficult as
> possible, take the chance at making a costly error and waste time and money
> going back and forth between units that don't need to be used. You wrote
> that you seen it done in tons of different types, but then where do all
> those bushels come in? Why is it necessary to quote prices in bushels? Who
> benefits from this?
Tradition. Once, grains actually were measured in bushels, I would
imagine. Then it probably dawned on someone that it was easier to weigh
the full wagon and then the emptied wagon at the elevator. Then, it
probably dawned on someone that grain can hold various amounts of
moisture and that it would be swell not to pay grain prices for water.
So, random samples of grain are now extracted, mixed, and resampled. A
certain volum,e of the grain is weighed, dried, and reweighed to correct
for the moisture content of the grain in the wagon. I've driven wagons
of grain to the elevator and I have seen this whole process. By the way,
if the moisture content is too high, the farmer pays a fee for drying.
Wet grain cannot be stored or it will of course ferment. Even in the
50s, a simple mechanical calculator was all that was needed to do the
math---simple proportions.
> The US government propaganda mill keeps telling the world that Americans
> have the highest rate of productivity in the world. I don't see how with
> this type of wastage.
No need to make the problem seem horrendous. It's not like the grange
people have to use calculus. Of course, people were used to actually
multiplying, dividing, and adding numbers then.
Jim
--
Metric Methods(SM) "Don't be late to metricate!"
James R. Frysinger, LCAMS http://www.metricmethods.com/
10 Captiva Row e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Charleston, SC 29407 phone: 843.225.6789
