Story of Wheat

You You You Hi there I was uptown at the grocery store and bought this loaf of bread just like so many other people do every day You know the story behind being able to buy a loaf of bread any time of the year and already sliced is quite interesting and Something people haven't always been able to do it starts with growing the wheat But I'm going to take you a way back before that to start my story Scientists are pretty certain that wheat began growing on this earth of ours in the area at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea in Southwestern Asia and was cultivated by a primitive man long before the recording of any written records grains of wheat have been found in the remains of prehistoric civilizations in the Swiss Lake region Dating back to the Stone Age and also in the tombs of the Pharaohs of Egypt more than five thousand years old wheat was a principal food of the ancient Greeks and the Romans and Because it required less time and effort to grow than most other foods the peoples of these civilizations had more time to devote to enterprises other than to eke out of their existence and Therefore could advance faster and further in developing the arts and sciences Here are some earthen jars that were used for storing flour in the homes The Chicago Natural History Museum was kind enough to loan these to me so I could bring them in and show them to you And here's something interesting this is an early camel bag that was used for transporting wheat Columbus brought the first wheat to America on his second trip in 1493 and while this was superior wheat to that grown by the cavemen The greatest advances and improvements in the development of new strains of wheat have been within approximately the last 100 years Through the work being done by the United States Department of Agriculture And also many of the state agricultural colleges we now have better wheat that is more resistant to diseases Notice how tall this can to feed is? Compare it with this in an adjoining field that is badly affected with wheat mosaic one of the virus diseases The farmer also has to contend with various rusts and fungus diseases like this black smut This picture shows the damage done by a late severe frost Plant scientists are also striving to develop strong sturdy stems that will not blow over during storms In ancient times wheat was planted and harvested by hand But even today in some parts of the world the individual heads of wheat are still hand harvested and then threatened Under the hooves of camels, but for our story We're going out to the heart of the wheat belt where the most modern methods are used to raise wheat After plowing the ground is then disc Then harrowed It is now ready to be planted Here is a modern seed drill that opens 16 rows at a time Drops the right amount of seed in each row and covers them up again in one operation Now through the use of time -lapse photography which greatly speeds up the action We can see the wheat actually pushing up through the ground as it grows taller and taller There are two principal types of wheat Spring wheat and winter wheat By far the greatest amount of wheat grown is winter wheat and is planted in the late summer It must go through a winter dormant period before it will head up the second year and produce kernels of wheat Here is a single head of wheat and if you watch closely you will see the individual antlers appear Here you can see the heads of wheat maturing and ripening to a golden color and ready for harvest While this process is going on a tremendous amount of other work is also going on in anticipation of the coming harvest Here at Hutchinson, Kansas in the heart of the wheat area You can see in the distance the large terminal grain elevators In the foreground you can see the railroad yards where thousands of boxcars are being made ready for the tremendous task of transporting the wheat The Santa Fe Railway is the principal road serving this area Each car is separately cleaned out and carefully inspected to make certain that it is grain tight The cars are then checked by the car inspector The first wheat has now matured and is ready for harvesting The modern machines that do this work are called combines Because they combine four operations that used to be done separately into one job This includes reaping, threshing, and all the work previously done in binding the wheat into bundles and stacking them in the fields Picking them up again and bringing them to a station to be used as a machine This is a stationary threshing machine The straw is chopped up and scattered over the ground so that its plant food value and organic matter is returned to the soil No longer are a dozen men needed for the threshing operation alone And no longer the farmer's life one of toil and drudgery The work of the womenfolk in the farm too is also greatly eased As no longer do the large work crews have to be fed Nevertheless, a cool drink of water is greatly appreciated on a hot sunny afternoon Modern machinery like this has not only greatly eased the work on the farm But has also drastically affected the farm population Today it requires less than two working hours for a farmer to raise one acre of wheat Whereas a hundred years ago it would have taken over 50 hours of his time The combine and other farm machinery has made it possible for one farmer to work many more acres And has brought about a present day large scale farm operation The combine has also greatly shortened the harvest period As the wheat is no longer shocked and left in the fields to cure This tremendous present day wheat production has concurrently greatly increased the problems of transportation and storage facilities But to keep abreast of the developments in modern farm machinery The Santa Fe Railway has not only 100 % converted to diesel power But has developed many other new and modern methods for more efficiently dispatching and handling freight shipments of all kinds I'm going to tell you more about this in just a minute But right now let's follow our truckload of wheat right from the field to the nearby country elevator Where the farmer may take it for temporary storage On the other hand, he may sell it directly to the elevator operator Some of these country elevators are operated as private business enterprises And others as cooperative enterprises entered into by the farmers in the immediate area which the grain elevator serves In either case, the truck is weighed in with this load of wheat Before it can be unloaded into the elevator, it must be carefully graded First, the standard amount is measured and weighed Next, it is tested for the moisture content If wheat has more than 14 % moisture, it will heat and ferment in storage As soon as the sample tests are completed, the truck drives into the elevator The wheat is down to the ground and is then loaded into the elevator It is pumped and goes through a grating in the floor and carried up into the elevator by means of conveyor belts The empty truck is then weighed out A receipt showing the amount of wheat, grade and moisture content is then given to the truck driver And he is off on his way back to the farm for another load One of our biggest and most serious farm problems facing us today is that of overproduction and shortage of storage facilities Many farmers are having difficulty in finding grain elevators that are not already filled with the holdover load The wheat has been over surplus from last year and the year before As an aid under the government price support program, the United States Department of Agriculture has erected many temporary steel bins for storing wheat and other grains And during the past few years, a farmer has been able to borrow up to 90 % of parity on his wheat that grades number 3 or better This is frequently more than he can sell it for on the cash market The farmer has a period of time during which he may redeem his loan and sell his wheat on the cash market, should the market price go up meanwhile However, he is not obligated in any way to pay his loan and if he does not elect to do so, then the wheat merely becomes the government's property In spite of the acreage reductions imposed by the United States Department of Agriculture that farmers must agree to in order to qualify for price support benefits There have been only nominal reductions in the number of bushels raised In other words, farmers have been able to raise many more bushels per acre In years gone by, surpluses were used up during periods of crop failure so that the old law of supply and demand was kept in balance But today, crop failure seems more unlikely as new improved disease resistant varieties of wheat are developed More land is being irrigated and brought under flood control More knowledge is gained regarding the control of insect hordes and better farming practices and crop rotation are put into effect At any rate, approximately half of our total wheat production is being put under government loan and being added to our already existing surplus To help relieve this situation, many country elevators have greatly increased their storage facilities during the past few years Many more elevators are being constructed all the time, but not fast enough More metal bins are being erected throughout the entire grain belt Here at Enid, Oklahoma is the world's largest grain elevator It has facilities restoring 46 ,100 ,000 bushels In spite of all this construction, the wheat surplus keeps on piling up At St.

Joseph, Missouri, a new method of storing wheat under canvas tarpaulins like great circus tents is being tested They are filled from the top, and as more wheat is put in, the canvas simply raises higher When completely full, each of these canvas canopies will hold 1 ,300 ,000 bushels of wheat At the air base near Clinton, Oklahoma, the main hanger has been converted into a storage bin for surplus wheat But this is not enough.

It is not too uncommon a sight to see farmers having to dump their wheat in piles like this, out in the open, due to the lack of storage facilities Now let's go back to our country grain elevator again and see what happens to wheat that is actually sold on the market The operator of the country grain elevator may sell to one of the larger terminal elevator companies like the one we saw in the distance behind the railroad yards in Hutchinson Or call a grain brokerage firm and talk directly to a member trader right on the floor of the Kansas City Board of Trade, the largest winter wheat market in the world But whether he sells first and then ships his wheat, or merely consigns the wheat to his broker in Kansas City for sale at the best market price after he gets there, he first calls the railroad for one or more boxcars to be spotted on the siding by the elevator These cars are then fitted with special grain doors.

This permits the regular doors to be opened for loading, unloading, and inspection of the grain A long flexible loading spout that you may have seen hanging on the side of grain elevators is then fixed into position The wheat comes down with such force that it is shot into the very far corners of the boxcar Most boxcars will hold from 16 ,000 to 21 ,000 bushels of wheat, depending on their size These cars are then picked up by the switch engines, one or two here, a couple more there, all throughout the wheat area Solid train loads of wheat arrive one after another at Santa Fe's Argentine Freight Yards just outside of Kansas City, Missouri Almost immediately the cars are opened by a grain inspector He uses a long probe, which takes samples of wheat at regular distances right down to the bottom of the car A sample of wheat is then taken from each car directly to the State Grain Inspection Department, which is conveniently located in the same building with the Kansas City Board of Trade Here, each sample of wheat is carefully weighed The grain is then inspected for poorly formed or diseased kernels and foreign material, such as weed seeds or wild garlic It then goes through a very rigid test to determine the protein content, which is an important factor taken into consideration in determining the final grade of the wheat All of this information is marked on a ticket.

It is placed in a little paper tray together with a part of the actual sample of wheat So the grain traders on the floor of the Board of Trade have all this information together with an actual sample for their own inspection Brokers representing food processors that wish a special type of wheat then may select just exactly what they want The broker is representing the farmers or country grain elevators, fed back and forth, shouting and using a regular sign language with the brokers who are buying for the food processors or others in the market for wheat As soon as they reach an agreement on the price, it is immediately marked up on the board so that every other broker can see what the latest sales price has been and how much grain was traded Each transaction is also immediately put on the wire and also marked up on the boards and brokerage offices throughout the country Anyone interested in either selling or buying wheat can readily find out what the latest market price has been by simply calling his broker in his own hometown Many orders to buy or sell wheat or other grains also come in by teletype Instructions on where to deliver the wheat are received, as the buyer may want it delivered in any part of the country or loaded into ships for foreign export Now let's go back to the train load of wheat that came into the Argentine freight yards.

It is slowly pushed over a hump The cars are uncoupled and start rolling down the gradual incline The hump master, located in this office, and each retarder operator in the control towers have a list showing the number and contents of each car moved over the hump On a panel in front of each operator are a number of buttons and levers that operate the switches to 56 different tracks In addition, the levers operate the automatic car retarders to govern the speed of the cars as they move down the incline To do this properly, the operator must take into consideration the direction and velocity of the wind, the curvature of the track, and the distance the cars are to move So that neither the cars nor their contents will be damaged by bumping into other cars at high rates of speed In this way, the cars are made up into trains for different destinations They are also arranged so that cars can be taken off the head end of a train along the way And a long train will not have to be broken in the middle to drop just one car off at some town or junction along the main line This automatic method of switching cars has certainly been a big step in speeding up freight shipments, and typical of the progress that has paid its own way When the cars are all classified on the different tracks and made up into trains, the road engine is coupled on Hello, Bob.

We have five orders.

352, 304, 303, 302, 301, clearance card 364, OK 1246 PM.

Then 228 and 30 seconds.

I got 228 and 35 seconds.

106 cars all through, ready to go.

All right.

The train now pulls out on the main line.

Trains of 100 cars or more highball along at speeds up to 60 miles an hour Careful scheduling is necessary so as not to delay the fast screenliners like the Super Chief, El Capitan, or the Texas Chief, that still have the parade on time at its destination Here is a special wheat train crossing the mighty Mississippi River The engine reaches the Illinois side before the caboose leaves the Iowa side, more than a mile behind The train now pulls out on the main line.

Trains of 100 cars or more highball along at speeds up to 60 miles an hour When the cars reach their final destination, they are spotted on sightings or delivered right inside a building, as is the case here with the flour mill that purchased this carload of wheat Here is another device that has simplified the unleashing of grain.

It pushes the special grain door right in and removes it The operator tilts the car sideways Then, end for end, until all the wheat has been unloaded The train now pulls out on the main line.

Trains of 100 cars or more highball along at speeds up to 60 miles an hour The wheat pours out through a grill below.

The wheat is then carried by conveyor belt to the storage elevator and from there to the individual machines that grind it into flour The sacks are then filled The final exact amount is carefully weighed out by automatic scales The sacks are then sewn up by machine and continue on their way by conveyor belt The flour may be shipped directly to your grocery store or to a bakery, which in turn bakes the flour into bread Well, you can see what an important part the railroads play in making it possible for you and me to buy a loaf of bread like this any time of the year Guess our time's up though, so hope you've enjoyed the story of wheat