or the state government, operates and takes effect while the grain is wholly within the domain of state authority, and prior to the inception of interstate commerce.

Mr. David F. Simpson, with whom Messrs. H. A. Libby, John Junell, James E. Dorsey, Egbert S. Oakley, Robert Driscoll and William A. Lancaster were on the briefs, for appellees.

MR. JUSTICE VAN DEVANTER delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is a suit to restrain the enforcement of the North Dakota Grain Grading Act, an initiated measure approved at a state election November 7, 1922. North Dakota Laws 1923, p. 549. The plaintiffs own and operate country elevators within the State, at which they buy wheat from farmers for shipment to markets in other States; and the defendants are officers of the State, who are charged by the Act with the duty of enforcing it. The plaintiffs challenge the validity of the Act under the Constitution of the United States on the grounds, first, that it interferes with and burdens interstate commerce, and, secondly, that it conflicts with the United States Grain Standards Act, c. 313, 39 Stat. 482. An injunction preventing its enforcement pending the suit was granted by the District Court, three judges sitting; and that interloctory decree is here for review under section 266 of the Judicial Code, as amended March 4, 1913, c. 160, 37 Stat. 1013.

A prior statute concededly "having the same general purpose" was adopted by the state legislature in 1919 and held invalid by this Court in Lemke v. Farmers Grain Company, 258 U. S. 50, as an interference with interstate commerce. There are differences between that statute and the present one, of which the parties take divergent views. It would serve no purpose to take up

Opinion of the Court.

268 U.S.

these differences in detail. We shall describe the situation to which the present Act is intended to apply, state its material provisions, and then come to its operation on interstate commerce.

Wheat is the chief product of the farms of North Dakota, the annual crop approximating 150,000,000 bushels. About 10 per cent. is used and consumed locally, and about 90 per cent. is sold within the State to buyers who purchase for shipment, and ship, to terminal markets outside the State. Most of the sales are made at country elevators to which the farmers haul the grain when harvested and threshed. These elevators are maintained and operated by the buyers as facilities for receiving the grain from the farmers' wagons and loading it into railroad cars. The loading usually proceeds as rapidly as grain of any grade is accumulated in carload lots and cars can be obtained. When a car is loaded it is sent promptly to a terminal market and the grain is there sold. This is the usual and recognized course of buying and shipment. Occasionally a farmer has his grain stored in the country elevator, or shipped to a terminal elevator for storage, and awaits a possible increase in price; but even in such instances he usually sells to the buyer operating the country elevator, and the latter then sends the grain to the terminal market if it has not already gone there.

The price paid at the country elevators rises and falls with the price at the terminal markets, but is sufficiently below the latter to enable the country buyer to pay for the intermediate transportation and have a margin of profit. All transactions at the terminal markets, including the price, are based on the grade of the wheat, and by reason of this all buying at the country elevators is by grade.

The grading at the terminal markets is done by inspectors licensed under the United States Grain Stand

ards Act, who are required to apply to all interstate shipments the grading standards promulgated under that Act by the Secretary of Agriculture. There are no inspectors licensed under that Act at the country elevators; and so the grading is done there unofficially by the buyers or their agents as an incident and part of the buying.

Grading includes an ascertainment of the proportions of clean wheat and of dockage in each lot of grain and an ascertainment of the quality of the wheat. Dockage consists of separable foreign material, such as dirt, pieces of straw, chaff, weed stems, weed seeds and grain other than wheat. Its proportion varies in different lots, but generally is less than five per cent. When not separated it causes the grain to bring a lower price per bushel than clean wheat would bring. When separated it has a value for poultry and stock feed which usually is in excess of the cost of separation. Occasionally the farmer separates it at the farm and sells only the clean wheat, and occasionally the buyer separates it at the country elevator, charges the farmer for that service, and buys and ships only the clean wheat; but generally the grain is sold by the farmer and shipped by the country buyer with the dockage included. The influence of dockage on the value of the grain and the current modes of handling it are shown in publications of the Agricultural Department of the United States, pertinent excerpts from which are set out in the margin.1

1 Extracts from Farmers' Bulletin No. 1118, United States Department of Agriculture, pp. 5, 21:

"The foreign material in wheat may seriously affect its value in that it often increases the cost of milling, and causes injury to the baking qualities of flour. Therefore, that factor is considered in the inspecting and grading of wheat. The amount of dockage present has a bearing upon the commercial value of a lot of wheat. Especially when present in large amounts, it is a factor of considerable importance to the parties interested in the marketing or storage of grain."

As many as 2,200 country elevators are operated within the State in the business here described-generally two or more by competing buyers at each station. Some of the buyers are individuals and others are corporations. A large number are farmers' cooperative companies, which buy grain grown by their stockholders and others in the vicinity of their elevators, ship and sell the same, and distribute as patronage dividends the surplus arising from such transactions-no profit being retained by the companies.

The plaintiffs comprise many buyers, individual and corporate, including 11 farmers' cooperative companies. In the aggregate they own and operate several hundred country elevators, widely distributed over the State, and buy and ship about 30,000,000 bushels of wheat a year. They carry on the business severally, each buying and

"All of the following methods of handling dockage are employed in normal times and all are generally found to be satisfactory:

1. The wheat is cleaned on the farm and only the clean wheat is hauled to market.

2. The wheat delivered by the farmer is run over the proper cleaning machinery at the country elevator or mill, and the dockage is separated and returned to the farmer.

3. The wheat is screened by the local buyer, payment is made to the seller on the basis of the grade of the clean wheat only, and the dockage is retained by the elevator or mill as compensation for services in removing it.

4. The wheat is screened by the local buyer, payment is made to the seller on the basis of the grade of the clean wheat, and the dockage is retained by the elevator or mill, and if the value of the dockage separated exceeds the cost of separation, payment is made for it.

5. The wheat containing the dockage is consigned to the large market by the country mill or elevator, where the dockage is separated and its value is taken into consideration in connection with the price paid for the entire carload of dockage-free wheat. In some localities it is the practice to make a small charge for such services, while in other localities the services are performed without cost.

shipping independently of the others. All buy with the purpose of shipping to and selling in terminal markets outside the State and carry out this purpose in the manner already described.

The North Dakota Act in terms covers all farm products, but as it is chiefly aimed at dealings in wheat and the parties have discussed it on that basis, our statement of its provisions will be shortened by treating them as if relating only to wheat.

The title to the Act describes it as one whereby the State undertakes (a) "to supervise and regulate the marketing" of wheat, (b) to prevent " unjust discrimination, fraud and extortion in the marketing" of such grain, and (c) to establish "a system of grading, weighing and measuring" it. The first section declares the purpose of the State to encourage, promote and safeguard the pro

6. The wheat containing the dockage is sold to a local buyer, who in turn consigns it to the terminal market with the understanding that the price secured will be based upon the commercial value of both the wheat and the dockage.

The first two methods mentioned, in which only the screened wheat is delivered to the local buyer, tend to minimize the differences of opinion with regard to the grade of wheat delivered and therefore establish greater confidence in the grades given by the local buyer. Furthermore, these methods enable the farmer. to utilize the foreign material for feed or to sell it locally."

Extracts from Farmers' Bulletin No. 1287, United States Department of Agriculture, pp. 5, 21:

The benefits derived from clean wheat are shared by the farmer and the country elevator. If the farmer cleans his wheat before delivering it to the elevator he saves the cost of hauling the dockage to market, and he may be able to use it to advantage for feed, and make a saving in his feed bill. In many cases these savings will repay the farmer for the time and trouble required to clean his wheat. The contention as to the amount of dockage in the wheat which frequently arises between the farmer and the elevator operator will be avoided if clean wheat is delivered. The price paid for clean wheat at the elevator is usually more per bushel than the price paid for unclean wheat, because the elevator operator