WHEAT GROWING IN NEW ZEALAND

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19430, 3 March 1933, Page 13

WHEAT GROWING IN NEW ZEALAND

BUSHEL WEIGHT. ( (By Wheat Research Institute.) (XVI.) The bushel is primarily a measure of volume not of weight, and wheat was formerly poured into bushel measures just as milk is now poured into pint measures. The standard bushel measure was a huge bucket twice as big as a petrol tin, round in shape just as the ordinary pint measure is now. In the market place at Shrewsbury, and doubtless in many other old market places, the standard bushel measure is still hanging where it has hung for hundreds of years, being brought down only occasionally when it was suspected that some buyer of wheat was using too large a bushel or some seller using one that was too small. The biblical phrase “to hide ones light under a bushel," is a relic of the time when a bushel meant a big bucket. When improved weighing machines were introduced it was found more convenient to weigh wheat than to measure it. But instead of usin; the names of weights, pounds or hundredweights, the old term was retained and a bushel was used as a measure of weight instead of a measure of capacity or volume. The confusion between the two meanings of the word bushel is well exemplified when we say that a line of Rye grass goes 8 bushels to the bag—that is we get 8 bushels into a four bushel sack, much as if we were to say we got two pints of milk into a pint measure—which no one Would believe. What is meant of course is that we get 8 /bushels by weight into a sack that holds 4 bushels by measure. In the case of wheat. it was found that a bushel of wheat weighed approximately 60 pounds, and so it was agreed by buyer and seller in certain places, including New Zealand, that instead of measuring the wheat it Should, be taken for granted that a bushel measure full actually did weigh 60 pounds, and that for every 60 pounds sold the price for a bushel should be paid. The custom is now universal although the figure agiecd on differs in various places. For instance in London a bushel means 63 pounds and in Manchester 62 pounds. In America and the United States it is again 60 pounds, but it must be remembered that their bushel is 3 per cent, smaller than ours. Whatever figure was agreed on ;t was merely an average. If wheat in New Zealand is poured into a bushel until' the bushel is full, it will be found that the content sometimes weighs more than 60 pounds, sometimes less. If for instance there is chaff or whiteheads in the sample the bushel will weigh less than 60 pounds. If the sample is sound and • well dressed the bushel measure full will weigh more than 60 pounds. The weight of a bushel of wheat is therefore a rough measure of its quality. Badly dressed grain or shrivelled grain will weigh light, and since wheat is heavier than water, grain that is in good condition has a higher bushel weight than that which is slightly damp. The average fairly well dressed sample of New Zealand wheat in good condition weighs over 61 pounds per measured bushel, and so this figure is set as the standard for f.a.q. (fair average quality) milling wheat. This year the bulk of the Tuscan samples are running well over the 61 pounds, but in certain cases very plump and good looking lines of Hunters are weighing unexpectedly light. They have apparently a somewhatspongy texture, and this is reflected both in their bushel weight and in their baking score.