Year: 1879

The so-called "New Process" I" OF
grinding wheat is one of the most i'm
portant technical improvements of the
present century, inasmuch as it adds at
least one dollar to the market value of
every barrel of flour manufactured un-
der it, besides producing from every
bushel of wheat several pounds of flour
more than can be obtained by the ordi-
nary method of grinding. 1t is claimed
that the process is not intrinsically new,
but that it has for some time been i'm use
among Scotch, French and German
millers, and that the -four of which the
celebrated Vienna bread is made, has
for a long time been ground in this
fashion. But if the process has not
been recently invented in this country,
great improvements in connection with
it have already been made here beyond
dispute; an extraordinary amount of
attention has been directed to milling
operations since its introduction, and
there is, therefore, a strong probability
that still more valuable improvements
will be devised in the near future.


The most suitable kinds of wheat for
this process, are the hard spring sorts,
such rs those grown in Minnesota, al
though all kinds are used with more or
less satisfactory results. The cleaning
of the wheat before grinding is much
more essential here than in the ordina-
ry method of milling. For this purpose
the grain before reaching the garners,
passes through a screen or sieve, a sep
arator, decorticating machine and a
shutter. 1t is then run through
"French buhr" stones with peculiar
"dress" which is not so sharp as for or
dinary grinding. The stones, too, are
farther apart, the running one being
raised more than usual, hence the term
"high grinding" applied to it. This
takes off the bran without cutting it up
or removing the fuzz from one end of it,
and leaves the grain broken up into
granules, technically known as I" chop
commercially " Graham" This passes
directly into Il bolting chest furnished
with three successive boiling cloths of
different degrees of fineness.


Here the flour is sorted into No and
No. 2 .. family flour, 26 per cent. of
the produce of the wheat going into the
former and 13 per cent. into the latter,
in some of our Eastern mills; but in the
West the proportions are generally con-
siderably smaller. The remainder of
the "chOp" passes into another boiling
chest, where the bran is separated from
the middlings" and thence the latter
pass into the purifier, a machine in
tended to get rid of all impurities light
er than the farina, by means of a draft
of air which lifts them from the sieve.
The "purified middlingsr ~ are then re-
ground, and the flour in passing through
another set of bolts, yields certain
proportion of New Process flour. In
some of our Eastern mills this amounts
to only IS per cent, but in the West, by
separating the stones more, rs high as
60 per cent. of the wheat can often be
made into middlings," from which
alone the New Process flour is manufac-
tured. In that case, however, the resi-
due is very poor indeed, SO that it has
been found most profitable to make only
80 per cent. of I" Patent or "New Pro-
cess" flour, an arrangement that leaves
the remainder fair grade of :" family {"
flour. After the separation of the New
Process flour the remainder of the
"chop" is again reground, and the
product separated into No. flour,
No. feed and small percentage of
screenings and waste.


The Patent or New Process flour con-
tains an unusually large proportion of
the phosphates and heterogeneous por-
ton of the grain, and is therefore more
nutritious as well as purer, whittier, finer
and more valuable than ordinary flour.
Another important advantage of this
method of grinding is that it brings into
more profitable use the enormous guam
tity of spring wheat raised in the north
western States and Territories, and adds
at least 10 per cent. to what the value
of the crops would be if ground by the
ordinary process. Before the introduc-
ton of this method, these wheats were
more less neglected and deprecated,
but now it is found that they make the
best quality of flour by the New Process.
This is therefore benefit alike to the
farmer, the miller and the consumer
Rural NeU Yorker.