The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1884-12-31
DAT MEAL.
The Operations Used in Making it.--Its
Rapid Increase.


The rapidly increasing use of and de-
mand for oatmeal is creating correspond
ing inquiry for plump, heavy oats. Hither-
to American oats have been too light and
chaffy for making meal. The culture of
this crop has been careless, and little at
tention has been given to improving the
quality and weight of the grain. Scotch
and Irish oats often weigh fifty to fifty-fve
pounds to the measure bushel. OF course
we cannot hope to compete in our hot, dry
climate with that of those places which is
cool, moist and admirably suited to the
growth of oats. But as we SOW we shall
reap, and it has been satisfactorily proved
that heavy seed sown will produce heavy
grain for some years, and with good treat
ment-that is, with manuring literally and
with careful culture of the soil-the crop
will deteriorate only very slowly. Our neigh
bors in Canada produce oats of forty-five
pounds to the bushel from seed of the same
weight imported from New Brunswick So
that 1t is question of seed and culture with
the CROP precisely as it is with all others.
meal we have a market for the grain, and
in any case farmer should desire to grow
heavy grain, although he may feed his pro.
duct on his farm. As hint toward this re.
suit we give the following particulars re-
garding the manufacture of oat meal, taken
from the american Miller:
CT The first operation in the manufacture
of the meal is the removing from the oats
oil the cookie, small oats and foreign seeds
of whatever kind, for if any of these remain
the quality of the meal is much injured.
Black oats, if even of good quality,
give bad appearance to the manu-.
featured meal, as it reappears in the
form of black particles, which to the tidy
housewife appears to be something much
more uncleanly. After the oats have been
properly cleaned by sitting, they are next
subjected to the operation of drying This
is accomplished in dry kilns, with special
apparatus constructed for the purpose. This
operation requires some caro- to prevent the
oats from burning. AS soon MS sufficiently
dry they are removed from the kiln while still
very hot, and stored in such a way as to
have them retain their heat; after thus re-
naming three or four days, and hardening,
they are ready for the Smelling operation.
The Smelling is accomplished by passing the
oats through mill stones of special pat.
tern. The product that comes from the
stones is greats, or the whole kernels, dust,
seeds, etc, and these must DO separated;
by means of combination of sleeves and
fans the greats are separated from the other
material, and are then ready for grinding
For extra quality meal the groats may again
be shelled and also passed through n brush
ing machine. The grinding of them must
not be long delayed, as n few weeks expos.
ure renders them unfit for milling. In
grinding the groat, the great aim is to avoid
pulyerization, and to have the granules cut
square and of uniform size. Ont meal is
generally denominated by the eut--as PIN
head cut, rough cut, medium and fine cut
thonah thasa ta'ma have different districts.
After the grinding tho meal is passed
through sleeves and the siftings graded &c.
cording to size.p