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Boxcars
Sometimes if only one farmer was bringing in grain I would accompany him to the box car to unload. The grain was in burlap bags. If large quantities were being brought in by one or two farmers, Mr. Moore might employ two men to remain at the boxcar site to help unload the wagons. The inside of the boxcar was always sealed around the cracks so that the grain could be dumped loose in the car. As the level of grain rose in the boxcar, boards were placed across the door in the center of the boxcar, one on top of the other with burlap in the cracks to keep the grain from seeping out. As these boards reached a height close to the top of the car, it was quite a chore to pitch the sacks from the wagon over the boards into the car. Inside the car, one or two fellows would be emptying the sacks, always filling up the two ends first in order to leave as much room as possible at the center door until the car was filled to its capacity.
As I mentioned, on a day when perhaps only one farmer was bringing in grain, I might have to accompany him to the railroad car to help unload since it wasn't practical to employ someone to sit around and wait for another load of grain. Then the farmer and I would together toss as many of the sacks as we could from the wagon into the car, then crawl Into the car, untie the sacks and work the grain to the far ends of the boxcar. This was hot and heavy work, especially inside the car on a sweltering July or August day.
Corn
Later in the fall, when the corn was husked out, Mr. Moore would purchase the field corn on the cob. On his lot behind the office he had two or three large corn cribs for storing the corn until shelling time. Unless it was Saturday, I was not involved much in the corn purchasing since school was already in session.
When the cribs were full, Mr. Moore hired the owner of a corn sheller and tractor to bring his equipment and shell the corn. The grain would fall into a leak-proof wagon bed and be sent on to the railroad siding where it was transferred from the wagon to the boxcar via scoop shovel, filling the car in the same way as with the small grain.
At the sheller the cobs went up an elevator to a large pile. Mr. Moore gave the cobs away and many people from all around came with sacks, pushcarts, wheelbarrows, and other receptacles for the cobs. They were excellent for starting a fire in a wood stove, especially when dipped into kerosene. Some of the cobs still had few grains of corn left on them which could be shelled off by hand for the chickens. At shelling time, I would always get as many cobs as I could in the evenings after school and store them in our cob bin in the barn.
I was grateful to Mr. Harry T. Moore for his confidence in my ability to handle the work at the scales, to make the calculations involved in changing pounds into bushels, and to believe in my honesty. The amount he paid me was not great but was adequate for my age and the responsibility involved.
The Wholesale Meat Truck
One independent wholesale meat salesman drove his own delivery truck and furnished most of the cured meats for my dad's store. These would include cheese, bacon, wieners in ten pound boxes, fat pork sides (called pork bellies), several varieties of bologna, cured hams and shoulders, and in season, such items as pork sausage, scrapple, and other varieties of meat products.
When I was not in school and dad did not need me in the store, this wholesaler (whose name I have forgotten) would ask my dad's permission to allow me to accompany him on the remainder of his route to the other stores in Ridgely, Hillsboro, Queen Anne, and places in between. I would help him make deliveries. He always returned via Dentonand it was easy to drop me off. Since I liked to go, I suspect that I requested the permission more often than he did. It was an enjoyable and learning experience.
Fertilizer Warehouses
I was occasionally involved in another activity that involved some responsibility, that of tending the fertilizer warehouses for the owners. Often the owner wanted to visit the farmers to get orders for fertilizer and would need someone to stay in his warehouse while he was gone.
This required knowledge of the kinds of fertilizer, such as 5-10-10 (the numbers standing for the percentage of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in the mixture), or nitrate of soda, as well as the number of bags in a ton or fraction thereof.
It also demanded accuracy in loading the wagon, so that neither the farmer nor the warehouse owner was cheated. Later, when my dad closed his store for good, he spent the remaining two or three years of his life tending to the fertilizer warehouse on a full-time basis for Mr. E. T. Orme at a salary of $30 to $35 per week.
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