The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1898-10-15
BREAD FOR THE ARMY.
HOW FIFTY THOUSAND LOAVES ARE
BAKED EVERY DAY.

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Automatically Huge Ovens Always
Full-Work Goes on the Whole Twenty
Four Hours-Men on Duty Twelve Hours
A glance bestowed upon the outside
of the rather pretentious frame build
ing adjoining the railroad siding where
q carload of flour is discharged daily
to be made into bread for the army OF
over $4,000 men congregated at
Chickamauga Park causes q look OF
incredulity tie fit over the face of the
visitor at the thought of some SO, 900
loaves of bread being baked each
twenty-four hours and delivered to
the hungry troops. Yet such is the
fact, and this one-story structure,
which is worked both night and day,
not only is making and baking 80, 900
loaves of bread day, but under
forced pressure can turn out IS, 600
and even 10000 loaves day.
As the visitor enters the building
proper from the open sheds in front,
where thousands of fresh, light, hot
and smoking loaves of bread are cool
ing upon the long, low tables about
six inches from the board floor, novel
sight presents itself to his view as he
is kept busy lodging the continuous
stream of black and white bread
boys rushing and tumbling out of the
building from the ovens holding fast
to large pans, each one containing
twelve loaves of beautifully baked,
appetizing bread.
Once inside the first things he OBJ
serves are two large dough mixers at
one end of the building, one having a
capacity of five barrels of -four and
the other six at each mixing. At the
smaller of the two man is just
emptying bucketful Of yeast weigh
ing eight pounds into the enormous
jaws of the mixer, while behind him
is long line of men, each bearing
snowy white forty-eight pound sack
of -four already opened and prepared
to follow the yeast as soon as it has
been thoroughly dissolved in the
twenty-four buckets of water, which
helps, with the aid of the giant steel
kneaders, to make the five barrels Of
flour dough.
From the larger mixer another force
Of men are removing the dough and
half filling long, deep and narrow
movable troughs 3x3x12 feet, slightly
wider at the top than the bottom and
thoroughly creased.
Just beyond this the three knead-
ers are working away, elbow deep, on
several other troughs which have been
standing a while and are in danger Of
overlooking from the seductive work
ing of the "self-raising yeast"
Immediately behind the men thus
engaged and covering the entire CEN
tire of the building are the immense
ovens, where all this bread is cooked,
and as the fremen go along the line of
furnaces, opening and shutting doors,
raking the fires, and letting out
food of light and heat, everybody's
attention, even that of the hands, is
arrested for the moment. Right af-
terward, with warning shout to the
people below, the bakers from the
other end of the building commence
shooting down slightly inclined
plane with lightning-like rapidity i'm
mense oonsignments of freshly baked
bread, which are quickly and rapidly
caught on the fly, as it were, by the
boys and carried out to cool in the
sheds with the remaining twenty odd
thousand loaves already there.
Finally, in all corners of the build
ing whereverspace will permit, bakers
and helpers are busy weighing out,
kneading and placing in pans we'll
creased the automatically mixed
dough, which is to go into the ovens
and make the bread for which the
commissary department has made a
reputation for excellence.
This vast establishment, covering as
it does nearly one-half an acre Of
ground, is divided into four sections
in order to be more expeditiously
operated. One hundred and twenty
or more men are employed, divided
into two shifts of twelve hours each,
and Of this number Of men 70 are
bakers, "a helpers, eight watchmen, 70
bread boys to carry bread and push
around the dough troughs, three fire.
men and engineers and two or three
clerks, each individual an expert in
his special line of work, and each one
capable of doing the largest amount
of work allotted to him.
In order to enable the bakers to do
their work promptly and efficiently
the night and day shifts of thirty-six
men are divided into four sections of
nine mon each, who prepare the loaves
for the ovens and carefully watch them
until properly and satisfactorily baked.
And not one of the least interesting
sights is where one of the bakers, with
a light on the end of pole fifteen
feet long, sticks it into the oven tosee