V Y ,1 rm^S- ms^^M^^ V 3, T? 3M-, StJJjfjiH ^^JTm i^>^*v *T* \ ifA-"!* 1*358? Jjtk* ' Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books are reasons for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from ^~^i*w^ tne University. Please note: self-stick notes may result in torn pages and lift some inks. Renew via the Telephone Center at 217-333-8400, ' Jf?j&k\ j 846-262-1510 (toll-free) or circlib@uiuc.edu. i^ Renew online by choosing the My Account option at: >(j&\ &%$- http://www.library.uiuc.edu/catalog/ sxK J UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS Agricultural Experiment Station BULLETIN No. 113 THE SHRINKAGE OF EAR CORN IN CRIBS BY ALBERT N. HUME AND O. D. CENTER URBANA, ILLINOIS, MARCH, 1907 SUMMARY OF BULLETIN No. 113 1. The total shrinkage of ear corn in cribs varies widely under differ- ent conditions, so that an attempt to make a statement in average terms would be misleading. Page 363. 2. In the trials reported in this bulletin the shrinkage ranged from 12 percent to 20 percent for the first year. Page 363. 3. The increases in price necessary to compensate for shrinkage vary correspondingly to decrease in weight. Page 364 4. The shrinkage of old corn is very slight compared to shrinkage for the first year. Page 365. 5. April and May are the months of greatest shrinkage. Page 365. THE SHRINKAGE OF EAR CORN IN CRIBS BY ALBERT N. HUME, FIRST ASSISTANT IN CROP PRODUCTION AND O. D. CENTER, ASSISTANT IN CROP PRODUCTION As an average for ten years past, the Chicago cash price for corn has been 3.8 cents per bushel higher in May than in December. It should be further kept in mind that in many localities the custom remains of taking seventy-five pounds of ear corn for a bushel in the fall, and only seventy pounds in the spring. This would be equivalent, if the custom were universally followed, to making an increase of .2.5 cents per bushel in the price of corn between fall and spring. Some such amount as this should be added to 3.8 cents, in order to express the actual average rise in price of corn between December and May. This would make a total difference of 6.3 cents. This conclusion is based upon the following data, summarized from the Year Book of the Department of Agriculture for 1905. The prices given in the table for the months of December and May are the averages of the "high" and "low" Chicago cash prices for the respective months. TABLE 1. AVERAGE CHICAGO PRICES OF CORN FOR DECEMBER AND MAY Year. December price. May price. Difference in favor of May. 1895 25.87 28.50 2.63 1896 23.12 24.25 6.13 1897 26.25 34.68 2.43 1898 35.56 33.43 -2.13 1899 30.75 38.25 7.50 1900 37.87 50.56 12.69 1901 65.00 61.93 -4.07 1902 50.50 45.00 -5.50 1903 42.37 48.62 6.25 1904 46.25 56.25 10.00 1905 46.12 Average 38.26 42.03 3.77 One question of interest to nearly every one who handles ear corn is whether or not the average margin of 3.8 cents between De- cember and May (or 6.3 cents, if five pounds less ear corn is taken for a bushel) will justify the holding of corn in cribs from husking time till winter or spring. Would it be more profitable to market corn as early as possible after husking time, or is it profitable to hold it? 362 BULLETIN No. 113. [March, PLAN OF EXPERIMENT With a view to getting information on this question the Agri- cultural Experiment Station of the University of Illinois constructed corn cribs in such a manner that they could be lowered to rest upon the platforms of large wagon scales and weighed. Thus when the cribs were filled with corn the amount of weight lost could be de- termined from time to time. Each crib was so covered with a roof and siding that it was influenced by weather conditions as little as practicable. One crib was built on the University farm at Urbana ; the other at Sibley, Illinois. It was planned that each crib should be weighed every week, and with few exceptions this was actually done, and the weights recorded. Aside from some preliminary experiments the cribs have been weighed continuously for three successive years, having been refilled once. In every case a variety of corn was used which was well adapted to the locality of the crib. Also in every case the corn used was reasonably mature and sound.* The weekly weights of the two cribs are given in Tables 6, 8, 10, and 12, of this bulletin. These same data are condensed in Tables 7, 9, ii. and 13, where may be found the shrinkage for the separate months. In these latter tables the average of all the weights taken in a given month is considered as the weight for that month. In order to make a check upon the data of the "scale crib" at Sibley, a stationary crib was built close by the former. This second crib was constructed of ordinary fencing lumber on blocks. The plan was to weigh each wagon load of corn as it was put in when this crib was filled, and also to weigh out all corn when the crib was emptied at the end of the trial. From the total weights thus gotten the total percent of shrinkage was computed. SHRINKAGE BY QUARTERS Table 2 summarizes the shrinkage by quarters ; the data being abstracted from Tables 6, 8, 10, and 12. The data for the first year of each trial are given in the upper part of the table and that for the second year trials are given in the lower part of the table. *It should be stated that this experiment was planned before the writers came into the work of the Illinois Experiment Station, and that it has been continued to date without any essential change. Some modifications have been made recentty which will give additional information to be reported later. 1907.} SHRINKAGE OF EAR CORN. 363 TABLE 2. PERCENT OF SHRINKAGE BY QUARTERS, ORIGINAL WEIGHT OF CORN USED AS THE BASE, THE AVERAGE OF ALL WEIGHTS TAKEN IN THE GIVEN MONTH BEING SUBTRACTED IN CALCULATING SHRINK- AGE Total Shrinkage up to and including- month given. Crib. Data for first year. Sibley 1st trial 2nd trial December. March. June. September. 2.1 5.2 2.2 17.7 8.0 19.0 12.3 Urbana 1st trial 2nd trial 3.2 5.5 6.9 8.5 17.9 14.2 19.8 15.2 Data for second year (including' first year.) Sibley 1st trial 19.6 17.6 19.1 20.5 Urbana 1st trial 19.7 18.4 20.3 20.7 From the above table we can see that the first year shrinkages of the two cribs varied between 12.3 percent and 19.8 percent up to the end of the fourth quarter. In connection with these percents of shrinkage we may consider data secured from other weighings, and also results from some preliminary trials. December 6, 1901, 20,545 pounds of corn were weighed into a crib at Sibley. This corn was weighed out September 25, 1903, when the weight was found to be 18,690 pounds. Here was a loss of 1,855 pounds or 9.0 percent for the entire period, extending over twenty-two months. Another crib close by was also filled and emptied on the same dates as the above. The same amount of corn was put into it as into the other, namely 20,545 pounds. When this was taken out it weighed 18,650 pounds. It had lost 1,895 pounds, or 9.2 percent. This crib and the one above were filled with the same kind of corn and the percents of shrinkage thus determined in duplicate certainly agree very well. Again, a stationary crib was filled with ear corn during the week preceding November n, 1905, and emptied November 3, 1906. The weights in and out were, respectively, 19,850 pounds and 17,280 pounds. Thus the loss was 12.9 percent for the year, which agrees well with the shrinkage for the Sibley scale crib given in Table 2. We have thus, taking into consideration all the trials, a varia- tion in shrinkage of the different cribs ranging between 9.0 and 20.7 percent for nearly two years' storage. 364 BULLETIN No. 113. [March. Table 2 is used as a basis for computing Table 3, which shows the increase in price that must take place between cribbing time and the given months, to compensate for shrinkage. It is assumed that in the case of every trial, the corn might have been marketed at cribbing time for thirty-five cents per bushel. TABLE 3. NUMBER OF CENTS INCREASE IN PRICE PER BUSHEL NECES- SARY TO COMPENSATE FOR SHRINKAGE, UP TO AND INCLUDING MONTH GIVEN: ASSUMING CORN TO BE WORTH THIRTY-FIVE CENTS AT CRIBBING TIME Data for first year. Crib. December. March. June. September. Difference be- tween Decem- ber and June. Sibley 1st trial 2nd trial .7 1.9 .8 8.7 3.0 8.2 4.9 7.8* 2.3 Urbana 1st trial 2nd trial 1.1 2.0 2.6 3.2 7.6 5.8 8.6 6.3 6.5 3.8 Data for second year (including first year.) Sibley 1st trial 8.5 7.5 8.3 9.0 .5 Urbana 1st trial 8.6 7.9 8.9 9.1 .5 *Difference between March and June. VARIATION is GREAT A consideration of Tables 2 and 3 must cause us to note above other things, the wide variation in the amount of shrinkage of corn in cribs and the consequent variation in the increase of price neces- sary to compensate for the shrinkage. Obviously there would be no advantage in attempting to compute an average shrinkage from the amount of data at hand. Table 2 shows that the percent of decrease in weight of ear corn up to and including September of the first year runs from 12 percent to nearly 20 percent in the four dif- erent trials. Consequently Table 3 shows a necessary increase in price for September varying between 4.9 cents and 8.6 cents per bushel. The decrease in weight between December and June in two cases out of four was greater than would be covered by the average in- crease in price of 6.3 cents between December and May; on the other hand two of the trials show a smaller shrinkage so that the average increase in price (including the usual five-pound decrease in the number of pounds taken for one bushel) may cover the aver- age shrinkage. 1907. J . SHRINKAGE OF EAR CORN. 365 MONTHS OF GREATEST SHRINKAGE Table 2 shows that the shrinkage for the second quarter is not much in excess of that for the first quarter ; the difference being an average of only 2.10 percent. The shrinkage for the third quarter, however, is noticeably greater than that of the second, the average difference being 8.70 percent. Again the shrinkage from June to September averages only 2.10 percent. By far the most noticeable shrinkage of ear corn in cribs occurs during the months of April and May. This conclusion is further apparent from a study of Tables 7, 9, n, and 13, which give the shrinkages by months. After April and May corn suffers only a gradual loss. SHRINKAGE OF OLD CORN By consulting Table 2 and observing the shrinkage given for each crib under the heading "Second Year," it becomes apparent that practically all moisture comes out of ear corn during the first year of shrinkage. In the one trial at Sibley, continued through the second year, the shrinkage was 19.6 percent at the beginning of the year and had only increased to 20.5 percent by the following September. The Urbana corn also lost only one percent in weight during the second year. It seems safe to assume that old corn may be stored in cribs, with very slight loss from shrinkage. RESULTS FROM OTHER EXPERIMENT STATIONS The Iowa experiment station made reports upon shrinkage of corn in cribs in Iowa bulletins 45 and 77. Bulletin 45 gives data for a single crib, a single year. The following table is reconstructed out of the table of "weekly weights" given on page 228 of Iowa bulletin 45, in such a way as to be comparable with Table 2 of this bulletin. TABLE 4. SHRINKAGE OF EAR CORN BY QUARTERS, (Iowa Bulletin 45}. ORIGINAL WEIGHT OF CORN is USED AS THE BASE, AND THE AVER- AGE OF ALL WEIGHTS TAKEN IN THE GivtN MONTH AS THE WEIGHT FOR THAT MONTH Percent of shrinkage up to and including" month given. Crib. December. March June. September. Iowa. 8.7 105 16.2 19.4 The following table is constructed in a similar manner from data given on page 179 of Iowa bulletin 77. It is made by averag- ing the shrinkage of four varieties there given. 366 BULLETIN No. 113. TABLE 5. SHRINKAGE OF CORN BY QUARTERS (low a Bulletin 77) . AVERAGE OF POUR VARIETIES Shrinkage up to date given in original bulletin. Crib. December. March. June. Iowa. 8.3 14.1 20.9 The Michigan Experiment Station reports as follows (Michigan Bulletin ipi) : In the fall of 1896, October 3 and 5, 6 loads of corn amount- ing to 16,767 pounds were placed in a crib. Most of it was hauled as soon as husked as the weather was damp and rainy. February 13 following the corn was again weighed. It had lost 5,725 lb., a little over 30 percent. This is an extreme case, as the corn was unusually damp when placed in the crib. "October 21, 1895, 3,310 pounds of ears were hauled from the field in a fairly dry condition on a damp day. The corn was left in the sacks until January 23, when it had lost 359 pounds or nearly ii percent." Dr. Manly Miles at Houghton Farm weighed corn from cer- tain plots called "north plots" and "west plots," October, 1881. There was a weight of 55,553 pounds taken from the "north plots" and 48,830 pounds from the "west plots." The corn from both series was weighed again in March. The total shrinkage of ears from the "north plots" was found to be 7.41 percent and from the "west plots" 7.49 percent. The Rhode Island Experiment Station Report for 1895 gives results with five varieties of corn. Twenty-five pound samples of unshelled corn were hung in a corn crib in November, and allowed to shrink till March. The shrinkage ranged from 7 percent to 22 percent. Kentucky Bulletin 26 reports results from eight differently fer- tilized plots. The corn from each plot was spread on the .floor to shrink. The first weight was taken November 1 1 and the piles were weighed again January 24. The shrinkage ranged from 12.3 to 29.5 percent. Data given on page 1 5 of Kentucky Bulletin 33 show the shrink- age of nine plots of corn fertilized in different ways, between husk- ing time and February 7 to range from 9 percent to 12 percent. 1907.} SHRINKAGE OF EAR CORN. 367 EXPLANATION OF FOLLOWING TABLES The remaining part of this bulletin consists essentially of the tabulated weekly weights from which Table 2 is condensed. These details are appended with the thought that they may be used for reference. For instance, it may be interesting to note that as a general thing the crib weights are influenced by the amount of moisture in the atmosphere. This may be noticed by referring to Tables 6, 8, 10, and 12. For convenience in reference Table 6 is condensed into Table j. In like manner Table 8 is summarized in Table 9; Table 10 in Table n ; and Table 12 in Table 13. These Tables 7, 9, n, and 13, give the percent of shrinkage continuously by months through- out each trial for each crib. SIBLEY CRIB FIRST TRIAL TABLE 6. DATES OP WEIGHING, NET WEIGHT OP CORN, POUNDS OF SHRINKAGE, OR GAIN, STATE OF WEATHER Date of weighing. Net weight of corn in pounds on date of Pounds of shrinkage since last Pounds of gain since last weigh- State of weather at or near time of weighing. weighing. weighing. ing. 1903 C\r* 1 K 20910