Morning journal and courier., 1881-05-07
The Farmers, Club.

New Process Flour and Sugar-Interest-
 ing Lectures by Professors Brewer and
 Johnson on these Subjects.
 The regular monthly meeting for May by
 the New Haven County Farmers club was
 held in the Sheffield Scientific School build
 ing yesterday afternoon at o'clock. There
 were number of ladies present, and 1t was
 one of the largest meetings that has been
 held for several months.
 After passing resolutions regarding the death of Mir. Hine. 8 member of the club, Elsewhere published), the business of the
 meeting proceeded, there being two lectures delivered, oneb by Prof. Brewer on ''New Pro-
 cess Flour" and the other by Prof. Johnson l on ''The Manufacture of Sugar.
 Professor Brewer, on being introduced, spoke in substance as follows: Flour and | meal are pulverized grain and the principal I constituents of bread. At present we have l but little in our bread but wheat House | wives find there is a difference in the flour of years ago. This change is oceasioned by the new process of milling To understa nd the | difference it is necessary to understand the elementary process of milling. The amount | of gluten determines the strength of four If we wash the flour we have starch The best | wheat flour has faint aromatic odor which l all do not understand. and those accustomed
 to judge flour become very expert in 1t. The Professor here described the process of test 1 ing four, which he said was extremely artls-
 tic work Bread to be easily digested wants | to be porous. The gluten in the bread IS
 tough, and is what causes it to be heavy We l J;oI,k other l four as we can from wheat, although 1t may l be just as nutritious. All the newspapers ln
 christendom may cry out against white bread
 but you cannot make the wives and mothers believe that it is not the best The Professor
 here described the process of grinding wheat, and illustrated by diagrams on the black | board the mill stones and other machinery for making four, and explained it as he pro ceeded. Formerly wheat was ground at once and produced superfine four, flour middlings and bran. New process | flour is ground over and over again. The | Professor here described the formation of | wheat, giving it's chemical composition and l showing grain of wheat enormously magni- | fled, which was very interesting. Continu- | ing, he said that in the old style of grinding 1 all the component parts of the wheat go into l the flour. He was prejudiced in favor of white bread, and could not see from chemical | analysis that dark four made any more nu- 1 tritious bread than white flour. One of the processes which four goes through in the | mill is called securing. A flour has recently l come into market that is called straight 1 four which makes very dark bread. It is elastic and is extremely popular, and is evi- dently made from good wheat Now. said l the Professor, what is thew process" flour 1 It is made from variety of millings. First | it is cracked coarse, the germ being taken out l of it. It is gradually reduced and may be l made from three or four millings, and may l go through thirteen, fourteen fifteen op- | erations The great trouble is to get rid of the bran and the germ, leaving the gluten, l which is nutritious. The middlings purifiers are brought into acquisition by variety of l processes with patented machines. Of course | the more perfectly the bran is separated, the
 better the four is. In the great Minneapolis l mills the grinding is done by rollers, which
 were described, and not by stones. You have
 noticed great many brands of flour from the same mills down to the ''Red Dog" which I was good for nothing. One great reason l why this new process plan of milling has l come into vogue is that formerly you could not make white flour from spring wheat and now the four made from spring wheat is the
 best.
 | Professor Johnson next addressed the club on the subject of Sugar." He said there ! were number of varieties of sugar known
 as cane sugar, fruit sugar, grape sugar, milk
 sugar, etc. In grape and fruit sugar the component parts were carbohydrates divided
 as follows: Carbon 72, hydrogen 12, oxygen 96, making 18O parts. In cane and milk
 sugar the parts were carbon IA, hydrogen 22, oxygen 176 making 342 parts. The sugar
 that interests us most is the cane sugar, | which only 8 comparatively few years ago f was 8 rarity, but has now become a luxury. | Tbo Sv,bi ich of ! marle sugar, beet sugar, are chemically iden- | tical. The cane sugar is manufactured in l tropical countries and is produced by a vari- ety of processes. The finest granulated sugars in the country are produced in the South. Mir. Whitney, of this city, has a sugar plantation near New Orleans, ! where the cane goes into the mill at one end l and comes out fine granulated sugar at the ] other end. Samples of sugar of various grades were exhibited. The beet sugar is ] one of much interest. It is one requiring more complicated machinery to produce it than cane sugar. He thought however, that it was impossible to get sugar from the beet 1 with economy unless it was raised with scien- tiic skill and care and carried on on an ex- ! tensive scale. He thought it would not pay to attempt to raise beet sugar in the United States. The sugar beets in Germany or l France are made to measure or grown to a pattern. Beets of certain dimensions have l been found the most profitable for raising | sugar, and they are produced by skill and practice; but I don't believe that sugar from beets will succeed with us So far raising sugar from the | maple, 1t is the most simple of all processes, l but is diminishing rather than increasing. There has been talk of making sugar from sorghum or Indian corn. It was ten or fif- l teen years ago that we had what was called ! ''sorghum boom,'' and it was known that l. sugar could be made from the juice, but 1t ET,11r hY,,.I I the past summer there had been hundreds of ! trials to produce sorghum from amber cane. Professor Collyer, of the Agricultural de- partment at Washington, has given this mat ter good deal of thought and study, and at the present time I see no reason why sugar
 from this cane cannot be produced as suc-
 cessfully as other agricultural products. It is almost impossible to see any difference in taste between the early amber cane and the ordinary sugar cane.
 l The Professor proceeded to explain at con siderable length the process of extracting su- gar from the amber cane. He said the great secret in producing pure crystalliZed sugar was from perfect defecation with lime. Great care must be had that too much or too little lime be not used After exhibiting samples of sorghum sugar the Professor closed his very interesting lecture.
 vote of thanks was extended to both Professors for their very able and entertain ing lectures.
 The next regular meeting of the club will be held on the first Friday afternoon in June. Postmaster Dickinson.
 The Senate Thursday confirmed the nomi nation of General l.. A. Dickinson for post master of this city. General Dickinson will at once forward his bonds, upon the accept ance of which his commission will at once be forwarded and the long uncertainty con- corning the postmastership will be ended. The city is to be congratulated upon securing an excellent successor to Colonel Burnham, the necessity for whose 2retirement is univer- sally lamented.-C0urGat.
 Fair Haven.
 The work of the Cedar Hill Union Mission is still carried on and new ones coming in. It seems to have great influence for
 good in the neighborhood where it is. The I schools meets Sabbath afternoons. The la- l dies meet Wednesdays to make and repair
 clothing and quilts. They have great deal