The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1903-11-05

CINE. Here too, is an artesian well
with flow of 500 gallons per minute
and every drop is used, for water is
very essential in transforming the
dirty potato into snowy white starch.
we now find ourselves in the receiv-
ing shed, where the potatoes are
dumped by means of an elevator at
one end of the scale which raises the
tront#end Of the wagon to an incline
that permits the potatoes to descend
into the pit, the bottom of which is
screened so that the dirt falls through
and can be weighed back to the farm
er. Ihe potatoes now start on their
journey of transformation and are
carried by cups to the storage room
and in turn to the washing machine
Where5the automatic scrubber washes
their faces at the rate of 100 bushels
per hour and passes them on to the
CRATER. Here they are grated and
crushed into a consistency finer than
meal 50 that every starch cell is broken
and the product falls upon a perfor-
ated screen, upon which several small
streams of water continuously pour,
the starch being washed into a receipt
Gle below, while the pumice is carried
forward on the revolving screen and
onward to the sewer. The starch and
water, much like thick milk. is pumped
constantly from the receiving vat be-
meath the screen into immense stOr-
&c watts twenty-four feet wide and ten
feet deep, fifteen in number in the vat
room. Here the starch is stirred,
washed, cleansed and SKINNED, and is
again5pumped out Of these watts into
tanks above, where the starch body
settles to the bottom to a thickness
of twelve or fourteen inches. It is now
washed and scraped, the water is
drawn off and in three hours the pro-
duct is taken out with shovels, cutting
much like cheese and goes to the dry
kiln, where a turkish bath can be had
while one waits. Each kiln has ca
pacity of twelve tons. In twenty -four
hours the starch has dried and fallen
through graduated gratings until it is
of the proper size and awaiting sack
ing in the bins below, nearly one hum
dred feet long and twenty feet high.
The starch is now ready for market
and is, sacked in packages of 250
pounds each, loaded into car lots for
Duluth and from there by boat to the
eastern markets. The process is in
|tenselv interesting from start to finish
anG& Mr.. Galley is one of the few men
in the west who has made success
Of the business. He has invested
S21, 600 in the plant, yet the regretta BILE
fact remains that it can be operated
barely sixty days each year. Potato
starch is the best made and Boston is
the foremost market in America.
Maine is a great strach state and is
said that Aroostook county is capa-
BILE of supplying the world with starch
if the potatoes could be had. The
Galley factory has a capacity of 1000
bushels daily, there being two COM
plete sets of machinery, but with the
short, poor crop, is not handling any
thing like this, this year. Rotten,
''refuse" potatoes make good starch
and go through the mill with the rest,
as the starch they contain does not
decay. The per centage Of starch this
season runs about two pounds to the
bushel less than usual, owing to the
small, immature raw material. Or
dinarily the Princeton factory handles
quarter of million bushels of tub
ers annually and is a very important
institution. In an average season the
starch yield runs about nine pounds
to the bushel and approximately twen-
ty-seven cents per hundred pounds is
being paid at the factory at present
for field run, which of course includes
much stock that would be of no value
except for starch Hundreds upon
hundreds of car loads of high grade
potatoes are bought and shipped by
the numerous dealers every season
and the houses are now all open.'
Auto and Train Collide.