The St. Johns herald., 1901-06-29
OUR FLOUR IN CHINA.
ITS USE BECOMING MORE con
 MON AMONG CELESTIALs.
They Fini It More Economical than Their Own Food Products-They Con- sume 1t Mostly in the shape of Boiled or Steamed Dishes.

The Chinese are learning to use four.
 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 four into. China more
 than trebled. In 1897 the value of flour
 taken there was $S09, ,192.S8. In 1899
 1t had grown to $2,O54, ,891.94.
 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 continued and growing market for it in all sections where the cost of transportation does not bar it's 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 flour is consumed in the form of dough or dumplings, filled with chopped meat or meat and vegetables and fruit.
 The four is made into dough and then beaten into leathery substance. It 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 1t 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 it's place with the great rice-eating population of China, but 1t furnishes 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. The grain is ground in small stone mills, operated by hand or animal power.
 The Chinese use vegetable growths for fuel. among them tall millet. If they take to using coal great area of country now given up to tall millet will no doubt be used for wheat growing. It is not a fact that the limit of agri cultural and horticultural resources of China have been reached. On account of the primitive methods of milling modern four 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 four in China, says Consul Miller, indicates good fu- ture market for American flour and Touring mill machinery, as we'll as em- Dloyment for skilled Americans In the and operation of four mills. The conservative character of the people when 1t 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 -four cheaply in all the great coast cities gives assurance of an extensive | md permanent trade between our coun- l try and the Orient.
 CHEATED OUT OF THE CLAIM.