Daily press and Dakotaian. [volume] (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1875-1880, 1879-01-13

In the 00frS, III tue CnOp, Ia Tue Hous
the biscuits. The resolution was adopted
almost unanimously"
Referring 10 the above action, the Amer
lean Miller of Jan. l, editorially says:
Ever since the last harvest millers
throughout the west and northwest have
been making complaint of the injury done
10 mill machinery by the presence OF small
hits of wire 10 wheat bound by the new sell
binders, AS noticed in our last issue, the
millers of Minneapolis have resolved thai
wherever practicable, q difference Of ten
cents per bushel be made, discF'mlnat'ne
against wire bound wheat. The Illinois
siate association, which was 10 session do
ing the past month, passed resolutions CON
demnin9 the use Of wire and advising the
use of some other material. Almost every
day complaints have reached US from mlllers
in every part of the west stating the annoy
auce and damage caused by wire in the
wheat. Some have suggested that all this
hue and cry have been raised in the Interest
of a certain Irvine binder, but the sequa'
will show how reckless such a statement is
and how wide from the mark it falls.
1--WE have taken q good deal Of pains dn-
| rinslthe past two months t. get possession
| of such facts AZ would enable us to place
the subject in the proper light before our
readers, and the results Of our investigation
warrant Us In saying that the wire'blnder as
generally used by farmers the past season Is
an unqualified nuisance to the miller. We
may here state in explanation of the TACT
that some millers have alphabetically declared
they experience 90 trouble. that very much
depends uoon circumstances II the gram
is threshed while t e wire is still bright,
aud the farmers take sufficient care in cut
ting the bands, little or no Inconvenience
will be experienced by the miller. How
ever, it is a well-known fact that verv fire.
%quently wheat Is stacked for a long time pre-
ceding the threshing. during which tim
the wire has opportunity to become rusty
and brittle, breaking very easily. Besides
this, who will undt rtake to say that farmers
or rather their employees, take anything like
adequate care in seeing that no wire goes in
the lhresher? Small bits of wire cannot be
seen in the wheat after they are broken up
in passing through the threshing machine.
A miller Of our acquaintance stood for sew
era! hours at the receiving hopper, where
grain was poured into the bin from farmers
wagons in an almost ceaseless stream, and
saw but one piece Of wire; and yet from
grinding that very wheat he experienced
great pecuniary loss and still greater annoy
ance from the invisible bits of wire. The
fact that the rusted wire when broken up by
the machine bee mes Invisible is in nowise
calculated to make the farmer careful, as nc
evidence of his negligence is obtainable I'M
til after his wheat is sold and the miller
money pocketed. Those millers who have
not been annoyed by wire in their whea>
have their good fortune and careful farmers
to thank. Their testimony, however, i
negative, and when farmers adduce theil
statements in support Of the wire.binders
y they are like the thief who, in order II
overcome the testimony of two witnesse
who saw him steal a coat, offered to brin.
forward two dozen men who would swear
that they did not see him steal it. Ii
mills where wire-bound wheat has beer
ground, pieces Of the wire hav,
been taken from the separators, from
the brushes, from the bran, from the mid
} dlings. AID found in the flour. How the,
e get there we will explain in a moment
We have a col ection "f these bits of wir
aud ugly-looking specimens they are. Thos'
that had gone through the burrs were o
! course f1attened out, and range in siz
. from a sixteenth of an inch to an inch aut
a half in length. The edges are sharp ant
not unlike u knife-blade, as suggested by
correspondent in an other column Wher
examined through a microscope, this elg'
presents a serrated appearance, and one Cal
. ca lily see how formidable an enemy it il
. to the delicate bol,mg-clolh which receive
the chop with these miniature saws an,
rszors mixed up with it. One miller IN
formed us that these presidential pieces G
hattened wire lad ruined $500 worth {
boltlng-clolh in his mill this year, and eth
ers had similar experiences TO relate. No
only this. all of these pieces Of wire wer
= ant ~ - - :, -, ,,0 a, ~ sIn1 rs,o ,,,,.l ::
I binding would be if fattened out equally
had been detached by the stones, a fac
Of the ed. e of the wire. The eff, CT of wir'
passing through the stones on the face o
!, the stones and ON the chop need not be en-
larged upon here. Every miller will ap
preciate the full extent of the evil. Bits Q
wire have been taken lro n the hoop of the
burrs by The handful. The fact carries it,
own moral. To many, and even to some
millera, it may appear strange that wire
could find its way through the Dumerou.
cleaning machines in vogue in our modern
mills. Any one who finds wire in The chop
will necessarily conclude that it does pass
through the cleaning machinery, and this
is all that need be known.
Wuy ~ W o~y !
nation that all of the bits of wire are more
or less curved, and therefore find their way
through the apertures of the separating
machine. The usually s~agacious Prairie
Farmer, of this city, suggests that milling
engineers ought to invent some means Of
removing the wire from the wheat. When
our contemporary remembers the fact just
mentioned, that the wire is most always
bent, the full difficulty in the way of remov-
ing it by..means Of separating machines will
be seen. The best way to remove it from
the wheat is to allow the wire to remain in
the store instead of carrying it into the
field. While we hardly think it possible
to make a distinction IN price between wheat
bound with wire and that bound with some
other material land the millers of Minneap.
dig seem to have had doubts a, to the prac-
ticabillty of the scheme in all casey we
believe that some measures should be taken