The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1890-09-28
OUR STAFF OF LIFE,
How the Raw Material is Watch ed and How
Much We Consume.

How the Raw Material is Watch ed and How
Much We Consume.
"Washingtonans use good flour" said Mr.
James H. Welsh, for the past six years District
Inspector of that article. every few of the
cheaper grades Of flour are sold here. Flour has
become very cheap the last few years, owing to
the large supplies annually furnished by the
monster wheat farms of the Northwest. Conse-
quently all classes can afford to use the best
grades. There is but little call for the extra
and super brands, the ordinary brands being
quite good enough for our choicest consumers.
Rye bread is no longer used to any extent.
Those who do use it are generally persons who
imagine it is healthier than the ordinary wheat
bread.
''During the past year inspected 11S,000 bar
rels of flour. This does not represent the entire
quantity of flour consumed in the District as
that which is received in jute bags is not in
spected. When the law was passed for the in
spection of flour such thing as transporting
it in jute bags or bags of any kind was unknown.
OF course, therefore, there was no provision
made for such a thing. In consequence all the
flour that is received here in bags goes free of
inspection unless the wholesale dealers repack
it in barrels for the retail trade, which is fire.
quently done. In that case it must be in
spected.
'The object of the inspection is just this:
flour of one grade or quality may be branded
and offered for sale as better article 1t may
also be adulterated, but that is very seldom
done. 1t may also be light of weight. The re-
quirements arise from these three condi-
tions. The Inspectors duty is to go to whole
sale house and there inspect every barrel of
flour that is received there 1t can be done
very rapidly, and have inspected as high as
twelve hundred barrels in one day. Ordinarily
the number is between five hundred and seven
hundred. Amy barrel which is light of weight
is stamped and the millers are required to make
1t up. If it is of an inferior quality it is con
dor, ,al ctvnh ar,I nr1.yh hn .11l
heavy penalty. The fine for sending out flour
without being inspected is one dollar per bar
rel. Flour not wholly up to all the require
ments is by far the exception. Very frequently
it is, oven weight.
sFour is mot often adulterated 1t is SO
cheap at present that its aduleration ceuld not
be profitably carried on. Bakers may adulterate
it to increase the whiteness of their loaves, but
beyond thai have never seen anything of the
kind in the District. There is cheap flour
lately consigned tothe West containing a rather
peculiar adGlteration. certain white bark
has been ground up and powdered and then
mixed with pure flour so as to very much re-
semble 10. The deception is hard to detect, and
when mixed in small proportions makes no
appreeable difference to the people who buy
that quality of goods
at has been estimated that each one of Wash
lngton's population consumes annually barrel
OF t1oar, the total cost to them probably being
over million dollars. At this rate the average
Washingtonian during his life of three score
years and ten will eat just 13, 720 pounds of flour,
or nearly one hundred and six times his own
weight, taking that at 13O pounds. That of
course, is a rough estimate, as there are at times
as many as 10000 or 40, 900 strangers here. The
best grade of this flour, the spring wheat, is
brought from Minnesota and Dakota. The
winter wheat flour is furnished principally from
Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan, The Georgetown
mills furnish the city very largely with flour,
their product very closely rivaling this latter,
but, of course, inferior to the spring wheat flour.
! They get their wheat principally from Maryland
and Virginia, and ship great quantity of their
manufacture to towns down the river, Norfolk
getting good share of it. Their annual output
is probably as much 10000 barrels.
"Wheat is comparatively high at present, but
it is going still higher before very long. OF
course it will not reach its old figures but its
tendency at present is in that tdirection. When
ever the fruit market is poor wheat comes more
into demand. Ordinarily fruit will to great
degree supplant the demand for flour in sum
mer, but this year the peach and pear crops are
total failures, the apple crop almost ba /, and
the other crops but little better. ASS as the
spectators get a comprehensive view of the
years product and the demand flour will take a
| higher figure. ~