Some aspects of drying wheat and orchard-grass

Tennessee farmers alone harvested approximately nine million bushels of wheat, oats, barley and grain sorghum in 1950 (2). This figure represents a total of forty-three thousand farmers that reportedly harvested these crops for feed or for sale.

At an estimated annual loss of 2 per cent (3) due to mold, enzymatic action and Insects, this means that almost two hundred thousand bushels of these grains were lost. Assuming that the amount lost could have been sold for one dollar per bushel and the returns used to purchase drying units at fifteen hundred dollars per unit, seventy driers could have been purchased.