Grain is sold generally by sample. Each grain has its particular grades — as, for in stance, of wheat:" white winter, red winter, hard winter, hard spring, western red, western white, etc. These are market divisions, and more or less arbitrary, as there are no fixed standards. All grain is inspected as it comes into the market, and again as it goes out into commerce. This inspection may be done by a local board of trade or officially by the State.
In the United States a series of reports on the current condition of the grain crops of the country is issued every year by the Bureau of Crop Reports. They begin with a report in March upon the amount of grain still in the hands of the farmers at that time. The April report tells the condition of the winter wheat and rye. In May another report on the winter grain crop tells the acreage which has been abandoned as not worth harvesting. In June the report gives the condition figures for the growing winter grain, and the acreage and pros pects of spring wheat. The July report gives the acreage of corn planted and the stocks of grain at that date remaining in the farmers' hands, and also another set of condition figures by which the crop about to be harvested may be very closely estimated. In September the official estimate of the wheat and rye, crops is given, and in October the official estimate of the corn crop and the spring grains. In Decem
ber the actual yields of all grains are given. Aside from the government reports, the grain exchanges and the large commission houses throughout the country receive reports from their own correspondents resident in the grain regions, and there are also special experts who travel about the grain country making esti mates and reporting privately to their princi pals, the grain dealers.
The world's production of the principal grains, according to the latest figures of the United States Bureau of Crop Estimates, is as follows: Oats (1915), 4,783,778,000 bushels; wheat (1915), 4,216,806,000 bushels; corn (1914), 3,864,279,000 bushels; rye (1915), 1,711,158,000 bushels; barley (1915), 1,542,972, OCO bushels. The grain crop of the United States in 1915 was: corn, 3,054,535,000 bushels oats, 1,540,362,000 bushels; wheat, 1,011,505,000 bushels; barley, 237,000,000 bushels; rye, 49,190, 000 bushels. See articles under the names of the different cereals. Consult Bailey, E. H. S., 'The Source, Chemistry and Use of Food Products' (Philadelphia 1914) ; Carleton, M. A., 'The Small Grains' (New York 1916) ; Sher man, H. C., 'Food Products' (New York 1914).