THE FARMERS' COLUMN.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 55, 20 October 1880, Page 4

THE FARMERS' COLUMN.

THE AMERICAN FLOUR TRADE. (Prom the Times.)

TbD ptbAuttion of wneab Rour, like many other industries, has of late .years grown enormously throughout America. Advantage has been widely taken of the great and extensively distributed waterpower. Numerous mills lave been erected and fitted up witli i;he most modem and effective machinery. Besides fully providing for the growing wants of a population of forty-five millions, the exports nave been expanded largely. Last year the flour exports of the United States to Great Britian alone reached 9,868, 172 cwt. ; they are double those of •1878 ; they are four times those of 1877. this is exclusive of the 460,435 cwt. forwarded from British North America, which has nearly doubled her exports since 1877. The wheat ior is carefully selected and -cheaply handled \ railroads, cauafe, or rivers, bring it into the mill and take away the flour ; on through bills of lading, it is cheaply forwarded to European ports ; special agents distribute it throughout this country,and American millers declare that this important industry can be still further developed, and that flour can be made in America and forwarded and sold in Great Britian cheaper than it can be made there. Although the latter proposition is untenable; there is no doubt that the production of flour throughout the world has been improved and cheapened by American invention and skill, while the large surplus supplies both of the States and of Canada notably reduce prices and narrow the profits of British millors. Owing to the shortened consignments from Hungary and Austria, many American mills in the spring wheat States have for two years been turning out large proportions of the highly albumenoid patent flour. The head-quarters of the manufacture of America patent flour is Minneapolis, the twin capital of the fertile State €>i'Min23esoia, where bhe mzghhy stream of the Missisippi pours over a precipice 50ft high. On either sicle of the river the flood has been deflected into tun- . nels of stone and concrete, and drives turbine wheels which move saw-mills and turn out annually 150 to 200 million feet of sawn timber, distributed hundreds of miles to build settlers houses and supply the wants of States less bountifully provided with timber. Still more widely distributed is the floor ground by twenty-five mills, Varying irom hhree • ho ezghb storeys high; their floors are computed to occupy an area of one and a quarter milllion feet, and filled with superior modern machinery. This muling enterprise has grown rapidly. , In 1873 there were but twelve mills not worth more than 50,000d015. each ; now there are twenty-five, valued at .alow estimate at 75,000d015. Four have been built during 1878. In 1860, Minneapolis turned out annually 30,000 barrels of flour. Her present producing powers would almost enable her to do this in two days. With a little extra effort she could nearly manage to furnish the 12,000 sacks (of 2801b) whice are said to be oonsuxoed Aailjr m Her aclual daily turn out, when the mills are working, is 12,000 barrels. She ground in 1879 upwards of 1,500,000 barrels, and of this large produce nearly one-third (422,598 barrels) was exported. The only other place where anything approaching to this business is overtaken is St. Louis, where the flour produce of 1879 was upwards of 3,000,000 barrels.