The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1897-06-05
FLOUR BARRELS.
VISIT TO A FACTORY WHERE THESE
USEFUL ARTICLES ARE MADE.
oddities Of coopeu and Some Of the In
terestlng Machinery Which has So
Largely Taken Their Places How
n A..t l. 49,.

. ed into a trap designed for his extei
/ ninatlon
, The ilour-barrel cooper is an cd
, character and belongs TO 4 class unliR
my other. COopers universally pos
res a rowing disposition and are su
)remely Independent. They are stron
and active and just the persons I
avoid, particularly when reflection
Is cast on their courage or efficiency
In later years, however, since barrel
making has centralized In the large
-four manufacturing cities and mach
merry has supplanted labor to a mark
ed degree, coopers are throwing oil
some of their peculiarities and witha
are a better class of men. They carr
fair wages as general thing, getting
from 81 to SO a day and they spend II
literally. The work of barrel fac
.ory may be divided into two classes
setting up barrels, which is a small
part of the work in barrel making, and
hopping them off. A skilled work
man will often set up 1000 barrels per
day, while If eighty are hooped off ii
is regarded as a good days work.
The three principal articles in flour
barrels makeup are slaves, hoops and
the headings. The material for bar
rels, which is referred to in the trade
as stock" comes to the factory in
bundles cut in the proper length and
ready for the cooper, Numberless
factories are scattered throughout the
county for the preparation Of this
stock. The hoops used in the manu-
facture Of flour barrels are mostly elm
and the northwestern markets secure
their supply largely from Wisconsin
and Michigan factories Hickory
hoops, which are used In the manu-
facture of perhaps 10 per cent of the
barrels for northwestern flour mills,
are purchased in Tennessee, which
grows a wood very suitable for hoop
making. Wisconsin and Minnesota
headings only are used The slaves
used are mostly of elm, about one-half
Of which come from Canada and the
from Michigan and Wiscon-
sin.
Hoops and headings are always ready
for barrelmaking but slaves are run
into a dry kiln, where the temperature
100 to 1870 degrees, the object |
IF this excessive drying being to pre-
vent the barrel from shrinking and a
resultant loss from the sitting of flour |
through the sides of the barrel. Ma
,hinery has created a great revolution
n matchmaking in the last ten years
md barrel prices have fallen as a re-
ult.
When the cooper begins to make a
'arrel he first sets the slaves up in
or truss" hoops. The en-
ryo flour package is next placed over
red-hot stove for five minutes or so,
he object of this additional heating
eing to cause the barrel to keep its
hape. The barrel is next run into a
machine, which presses the
-eel hoops on the barrel with pressure
quail to fifteen-horse power. A most
laryellous machine then takes the
ackage and whizzes it around at
onderful velocity, smoothing the ends
nd forming the groove which holds I
lie head of the barrel. This piece of
is called a double-headed
'ozing machine. The barrel next is
eyated to an upper floor, where COOP
s fit the permanent hoops, put in i
nd SIN h 10 IT. =
Lrrel is then ready for the mill. {
The capacity of one of the largest a
ctories in the northwest is about g. I
o barrels a day. Roughly speaking a
e barrels sell to the flour mills for t
cents each and the several items of
st in a flour barrel are: Slaves. II r
nts; heading, cents; hoops, cents; y
Dor and profit, 8. The few hickory
op barrels used by the mills sell for VI
out 2 cents each more than the elm :,
OPP barrels.
Millers pack into barrels about one =,
If Of the flour shipped by them. The y
rrel is preferable to a sack as a pack :,
e for flour, chiefly because it furn- y
m dust and moisture and is more
'ily handled. Nearly all of the high 10
grades Of flour are packed in barrels 81
these reasons. III
Nhe -four trade of the larger eastern al
es demands that the hoops of the u
|, or fat-hoQped barrels, be colored, II
lush tint, obtained from anili1e dye. NJ
ng most desired. This is largely a OF
, but at the same time it indicates ia
t the Hours with the colored hoped ed
rels come from the northwestern TO
Is, and there may be an advantage or
hat. Millers, too, have fallen vic tn
to the craze and oddities OF their te
in the shape of different colored ell
ps or striped slaves often may be tn
I. There is also what is known as de
mugwump barrel, which is hoped gu
both hickory and elm hoops, the to
'ct of the odd barrel being chiefly tic
ttract attention. SCI
here is usually good sale for sec
hand flour barrels in the larger ri,
IS, which annually take the bulk ar,
he flour made in the big north col
tern mills. They are used for ap-
, crackers, potatoes and general
luce. Last fall, owing to the very !
e apple crop. barrels were in great Ian
and and sold for Is to 20 cents M
/ after the -four had been removed 40
them. The cooper shops at Su- -
Or and Duluth turn out annually
e than 100000 flour barrels for a..
local mills, besides making many s'a
be packages for smaller mills 'iie
ughout the northwest. While the sio
uct of the cooper shops in the lur