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How the farm
product was sold. When they finished
threshing, the men would haul their wheat to town and lay in supplies
for the winter. They followed a wagon track across the prairie and sometimes
marked the way with piles of sod or with willow sticks set in the ground
and bearing pieces of cloth. Many traveled two or three days going to
town and as many on the return trip. On the way, they would spend a
night or two in the open or with some hospitable settler.
In town, as many as one hundred men with wagons or sleighs might be waiting to sell their loads. Grain buyers were often not too honest, and cheated the farmers in weighing and grading the wheat. The buyer graded by merely looking at a sample and biting a kernel or two, often grading too low and taking off too much for dockage. In self-defense, the farmers would work off screenings and bin-burned grain on the buyer. History of North Dakota, Elwyn B. Robinson, 1966. Used by permission of (still have to check)
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