St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1890-09-11
Gbe Californian
THE FIGURING INDUSTRY OF MIN
NEAPOLIS.

Minneapolis has become the head
quarters of flour milling because OF
her great water-power, her situation
with reference to the spring-wheat
lands of the Northwest, the enterprise
of her capitalists, and the extraordi-
nary skill and inventiveness of her
operative miIlers and machinists. An
account of the inventions made here
In milling apparatus and methods
would form a most interesting chap
ter in local history. There are now
standing thirty-seven mills, capable
of producing 81 $50 barrels of flour
daily The actual output of the last
calendar year was 6,0SS, S65 barrels,
as against 10000 barrels in 1860,
1913. 900 in 1870, 2,O51 $40 in 1880.
About one-third of the current pro-
duct is exported, being billed direct
from the milI-door to Liverpool and
Glasgow The first shipment of
flour from the falls was in 1858,
when a few barrels were consigned
to New Hampshire, because bill of
exchange could not be obtained to
meet an eastern obligation. An or
der for hundred barrels was the inn
mediate result, although the cost of
freight was $2.25 per barrel.
Beginning with the little govern
mcnt mill, with its single run of gran
lite stones, the tendency in mill build
ing has been constantly towards en-
largement. Whether the economic
limit has been reached in the great
''PiIIsbury A" mill can only be CON
jecturcd This immense establish
ment erected in 1891, covering with
its six stories an area of 20, 900
square feet mot counting that of five
accessory structures of no small size),
having go pairs of rolls, $50 purifi-
ers. 81 cleaning machines, 300 bolt
ing reels. 30 scalpers, % bran dust
ers, and III all $50 separate machines,
has actually produced 719S barrels
of -four III twcnty-fOur consecutive
hours. Twenty-Five thousand bush
els of wheat are needed for the Ordi-
nary daily run, $50 men are employ
ed, and the force furnished by the two
immense turbine water wheels is over
two thousand horse power. The in
genious and equitable system of pro-
fit-sharing carried on by this concern,
beneficial alike to capital and labor,
has been frequently described in econ
omic journals.
Within the past year the great "A"
mill, and two others belonging to the
PIllsbury firm, have been transferred
to Il syndicate of American and Eng
fish capitalists. The same combina
ton IS obtaining control, by transfer
or lease, of other mills, in all, of eight
establishments, capable of turning
out %, 800 barrels day. The man
agement of this immense aggrega-
ton is rcposcd in the hands of Mr.
Charles A. Pillsbury, the successful
and experienced miller heretofore at
the head of the Pillsbury firm. Opin
ions differ as to the dcsirability of
such agencies of production being SO
largely owned by non-residents.
Some see in it a desirable addition of
capital to be managed by persons To-
cally interested; others remark on
the circumstance that the profits will
be mostly spent elsewhere In the
face of actual experiment it is unne-
cessary to indulge in conjecture A
decade or two will tell the story
From Minneapolis in 1890" by
Prof William W. FOlweIl, in New
England Magazine for September