d to follow. So
that if the Chief Grain Inspector were a "crank on color," he should
remember that beauty was only skin deep.

The fracture and microscopic and weighing tests seemed to be the only
reasonable tests which could be applied quickly; the milling test was
the only one which was absolutely correct. Any rapid eye test which
pretended to determine whether there was sixty-one per cent. or
fifty-nine per cent. of Red Fife wheat in a given sample struck the
Farmers' Representative as farcical; yet this was sufficient to make
the difference of a grade and sometimes a difference of seven cents per
bushel in the price obtained.

The whim of the Inspector likewise decided how many lean berries in a
plump sample would disqualify it for "plump" classification and how
many mature or defective berries among sound wheat, would disqualify it
from being classed as "sound." With a single concocted sample as a
basis of judgment Partridge considered that the grading of the lower
grades often was very unjust to the producer, especially to the owners
of plump frosted wheat; the process of concocting the basic sample was
very interesting; but the result was "a nightmare."

W. H. Gaddes, who had preceded him to Winnipeg, agreed with him in
this. Also, Mr. Gaddes denounced the Survey Board at that time as
unsatisfactory in its composition, open to suspicion in its findings
and in practice--so far as outsiders' wheat was concerned--simply a
machine to register confirmation of the Inspector's previous grading.

It was Partridge's belief that "many a fraud perpetrated in a line
elevator" was added to the "iniquities" of the Inspector, in whose
personal integrity he had every confidence. For this reason he was
inclined to be lenient with the hard-working and conscientious
officials of the Government. Nevertheless, it appeared wise that a
farmers' special agent be maintained permanently at Winnipeg to
safeguard the interests of the farmers, especially if certain powers
were allotted to him under the Inspection Act.

In making his report to the Territorial Grain Growers' Association
Partridge went into the whole situation as he saw it and particularly
was he outspoken in regard to "that House with the Closed Shutters," as
he called the Winnipeg Grain and Produce Exchange. In fact, his gas
attack upon the Exchange was ablaze with the fires of hostility.

And for the use of his reckless language Partridge was to be called to
ac