The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-11-12
DooRKEEPERPardon
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American rather than a British miller.
Then there is the money paid TO labor. For
every thirty barrels of flour manufactured
the work of one man is required for one
day. This does not include the men who
might be used in the extra handling for
shipping. Then there is the saving of the
bran, middlings, mill feed and such bl-
products as result from the manufacture or
flour. In brief, if all the exported wheat
was first manufa ctured into flour, the profit
account would be considerable.
There are approximately 10000 Touring
mills in this country. The combined ca
pacity of these is sufficient to grind all the
wheat grown in the United States Plainly
Ii is not the lack Of facilities which sends
the wheat away in the form of grain. The
main question to consider in the improve
ment of the flour trade is shipping. Flour
has never had any assistance in the way of
tariffs and legislation. OF course it never
needed any protection but it Is possible
that there might be assistance in the way
OF breaking down the customs barriers of
other countries. France and Germany, for
instance have prohibitive customs regula-
tions against American flour. They take
our wheat, but do their own grinding This
is true of Russia and Turkey and other
countries. This of course would quickly
lead to the reciprocity question.
MAIN SHIPPING POINT.
Newport News is the flour shipping point
of this country. The facilities at this Vir-
ginia port are superior to those of any other
salt water shipping place along the At
lantic coast The flour barrels are rolled
into the cars at mills and rolled out of the
cars to their places in the ship at the New
port News dock. In New York the facili-
ties for transferring flour from the trains
TO carts and docks and lighters and ocean
will be Temedied in time. The New York
Central is spending vast sums on its ocean
docks at Weehawken, and flour will be
given proper consideration. The Pennsyl-
Vania also will have flour facilities in its
new terminal arrangements. This, however,
is some years distant
The government trade bulletins indicate
that China is beginning to take American
flour. The largest export year to that
country was 1900 with 107, 900 barrels, for
which we received $30S 600. James j. Hill.
the railroad man, says that China will
learn to like flour better than rice and
that within a few years the flour trade
with China will be enormous. In this state
ment he is indorsed by Secretary of Agri-
culture Wilson, who says than in COM
paratively few years the major portion of
the products of the Mississippi valley will
go to the Pacific coast, instead OF to the
Atlantic coast.
the matter considerable practical attention,
firmly believe that within a few years they
will be almost independent of the Atlantic
coast trade. The grain steel carriers of the
North are now bending under the burdens
of the moving freight for the farther North
west, Alaska and the Orient. The chief
shortage on the Pacific is ships. Freight
lies piled up on the docks waiting for ship
ment.
The housewife will be interested in learn
ing of experiments and Investigations in
food values which the Minneapolis millers
have been making recently. There are on
the market in the form of whole-wheat
flour, various kinds Of so-called health food.
These vary in form and character by means
of additions of the bran and by-products to
the dead white wheat flour. The expert
ments of the millers, of the most practical
kind. have proved that the nutritious prop
critics of dead white wheat flour far exceed
those of any combinations of whole-wheat
flour The pure white flour, according to
these experiments, is superior to that of
anv other wheat flour. These experiments
were probably impartial, as the various
kinds of whole-wheat flour are placed on
the market primarily by the big millers.
OTTO CARMICHAEL.