GRADING PRODUCE.

Shannon News, 21 November 1922, Page 2

GRADING PRODUCE.

ADVICE TO FARMERS.

The Government grader at Timaru, mentioned to a reporter the other day a matter which should be of interest to farmers. During the season just ‘ closing, he said, there had been many rejections of grain and potatoes when the produce reached the store or the ship’s side; and farmers should, in their own interest, take steps to prevent a recurrence of this another season, as it put them to inconvenience and expense quite unnecessarily. Some people thought, or appeared to think, that the grader took a delight in rejecting stuff, but this was quite erroneous; a grader was never so well pleased as when he was conscientiously able to pass every line which he had to inspect. Greater care should be taken when threshing wheat to see that the bulk was not spoiled by the inclusion of seconds or * broken wheat, and care should also be taken, to see that the grain was not threshed before it was in proper condition for threshing. It was true that in South Canterbury there were only about a third of the rejections that there were in North Canterbury this season, but it should not have been necessary to reject nearly as much as it had been found necessary to reject. It was true that after having been rejected, much of such wheat was re-conditioned and then passed, but this meant added charges which under careful management could have been avoided. Rejections profited no one, and were a source: of annoyance all round. With regards to potatoes, the grader said it was important for growers: to know that from November Ist anew basis for rejections had been decided upon. In the past it had been' customary to allow up to 8 per cent.of diseased, frosted, sunburnt and! undersized tubers before a line was rejected/but in future the basis for rejection would bo anything in excess of 4 per cent, of faulty potatoes. It would pay growers to exercise more care and not leave potatoes on the ground to be frosted or to be greened by the sun, and see that the sample was not spoiled by the inclusion in tables lines of undersized tubers. No potatoes should be included in table lines that would go over a riddle.. This meant, approximately, that no • potatoes smaller than a duck’s egg • should be included in a sample intended to be sold as “good tables.”