Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1901-04-19
OUR FLOUR In CHINA.
ITS USE BECOMING MORE CON-
MON AMONG CELESTIALS.
They Find It More Economical than
Their Own Food Products-They Com
sumo 1t Mostly in the Shape of
Boiled or Steamed Dishes.

The Chinese are learning to use flour.
With them it is largely an acquired
taste. Americans are encouraging the
habit, and it is very likely that as
China grows more prosperous the con-
sumption will greatly increase. That
will give American flour merchants a
very big field for business.
In the two years ending with 1899
the imports of flour into China more
than trebled. In 1897 the value of flour
taken there was $sO9, 1872 SS. In 1899
it had grown to $2,O54, ,s9194.
Henry B. Miller, United States con-
sui at Chun-King, reports to the govern
ment that wherever flour has been in
troduced into China there has been
such rapid increase in the demand and
in the consumption as to give an as
surance of a continued and growing
market for it in all sections where the
cost Of transportation does not bar its
use. With the development of China
will come improved conditions with
the Chinese and a demand for better
and more diversified food.
In all Chinese cities a very large per-
centage of the population lives in a
sort of hand-to-mouth fashion. The
great necessity for economy in fuel
seems to be the primary cause of this
mode of living. Throughout central
and southern China very little baked
bread is used. The -four is consumed
in the form of dough or dumplings,
filled with chopped meat or meat and
vegetables and fruit.
The flour is made into. dough and
then beaten into leathery substance.
1t is then pressed into thin sheets and
cut into strings, boiled and thus eaten,
or else made into dumplings and steam
ed. In nearly every case it is eaten
while hot. Foreign -four is also used
quite extensively in cakes and Chinese
confections. The Chinese appetite
seems to demand boiled or steamed
food, rather than bakes; hence very
little bread is baked for Chinese con-
sumption.
Foreign flour does not come into actu-
al competition with rice, and, of course,
cannot altogether take its place with
the great rice-eating population of
China, but it furnishes a cheap variety
Of food. The merchants, mechanics
and coolies in all the treaty ports of
China get better incomes than those of
the interior, and are able to add little
variety to their food, and are becoming
consumers Of foreign -four.
| Wheat is grown to some extent in
nearly every section of China, but more
extensively throughout the northern
and western than in the central and
southern portions. In the north and
west it is used very generally for food
J The grain is ground in small stone
mills, operated by hand or animal
! power' "a
The Chinese use vegetable growths
for fuel. among them tall millet. II
they take to using coal a great area OF
country now given up to tall millet will
no doubt be used for wheat growing
! 1t is not fact that the limit of agri
cultural and horticultural resources OF
China have been reached. On account
of the primitive methods Of milling
modern flour mills have been construct
ed there by Caucasians. One at Tien
Tsin was destroyed by the BOXERS
There are two at Shanghai.
The consumption of flour in China
says Consul Miller, indicates a good fu
ture market for American flour anG
Touring mill machinery, as well as EN-
ploylnent for skilled Americans in the
construction and operation of f1oul
mills. The conservative character OF
the people when it comes to change
in methods is such that it seems per
fectly safe to predict that the demand
for flour for many years to come will
. be far ahead of the local production
The ability of the United States to place
, flour cheaply in all the great coast
. cities gives assurance of an EXTENSIVE
and permanent trade between our coun
!, try and the Orient. >.