The elevator was usually run by a single elevator agent, also known as a grain buyer. Even if a grain company had more than one elevator in the community there was usually just one agent “stationed” in that community for each grain company. Occasionally the agent hired a helper, known as a “Second Man”.
Many agents preferred to do the work themself. Almost all employees in the elevator industry were men. The agent was supervised by a District Superintendant who was responsible for all the elevators in their district. Everyone else in the company as “big shots” from “head office”. They were distinguished by their suits and often looked down upon for lack of manual labor.
Showing posts with label grain elevator agent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grain elevator agent. Show all posts
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Tools of the elevator agent
Two of the main tools the elevator agent used was a shovel and the "scoop".Shoveling grain is a primary job in the elevator. When elevator agents retired the farmers often held a pot luck in the community hall and presented him with a shovel that they had all signed. This picture is of a retirement shovel.
The "scoop" was usually made from a sawed off broom handle and a tin can screwed to one end
The handle was crudely flattened with a jack knife so the can would sit flat. When the farmer brought in a load of grain they would dump the grain into the pit. As the grain comes out of the end gate of the truck box samples of the grain are collected with the scoop and put in a pail. The samples are then gathered for each load the farmer is dumping, mixed in the pail and the grain is sent away to be graded. The grade represents the quality of the grain and the higher the quality the more the grain was worth. Farmers often would carefully observe the taking of the samples and would be quick to object if they thought the sample wasn't representative of the load. The sample was taken by the "scoop".
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