FLOUR MANUFACTURE.

The object of this article is to enable those unacquainted with the business to understand the milling terms in common use, and to purchase understandingly for domestic purposes. For ages, the grinding of the cereals was done in a very primitive and simple manner. It would be idle to attempt any conjecture as to the time when the use of the upper and lower millstones were first used, or when one of the two was first rotated by other than hand-power; but the plan has been continued to the present time, though there now seems to be a prospect of a complete change, as the stones, it is believed, cause a loss of some of the most valuable properties of wheat in grinding, and rollers to crush the kernel are rapidly being substituted. Wishing to get the facts, the following letter was sent to Messrs. Allis & Co., who furnished the following illustrations and description of mills, but was unable to furnish all the information desired; so recourse was had to Albert Hoppin, editor of the Northwestern Miller, of Minneapolis, Minn., who kindly and readily furnished details asked for.

EDWARD P. ALLIS, Esq., Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Dear Sir: Having published the results gained from more than a dozen years of continuous experiments, the information has been called for by practical milling men, mechanics, engineers, educational institutions and the legal fraternity. I seldom go into court as expert in hydrodynamic cases where my book is not in use. It has gained a rapid circulation in this country and Europe, and has been sent for from Japan. Recently, the census bureau sent for a copy to be used, I understand, in some way in preparing statistics about water power. Of course, I feel pleased that my efforts have been appreciated, and wish to make the work still more useful. It is easy here to get information about cotton, woolen or silk manufacture, but not about the manufacture of flour. Having visited your works at Milwaukee, and mills in several different states that were constructed and furnished with machinery by your firm, I take the liberty of applying to you as the most competent person of my acquaintance for useful information about the production of flour. I would like illustrations of mills and machinery, elevations, plans if necessary; then separate machines in detail. I would like an elevation of one fitted with the ordinary burr stone, driven by water power; another, fitted with rollers and driven by steam. I would like the acreage of wheat the past season, the best soil for same, the maximum per acre and general average. (I know this last can be seen in the census report, but that report is not always to be had.) I want the pounds of flour to the barrel, the number of bushels of wheat required for the same, the weight of different kinds of wheat, or other grain, per bushel; the weight of flour or meal produced from a bushel of rye, oats, Indian corn, buckwheat. A brief description of Haxall flour, and the "New Process," of course, should be given. Of course, it is not expected that the information shall be so explicit as to enable one to learn the business and become a first-class miller, but sufficient to make the terms in general use intelligible to those living far away from such scenes. Are the ordinary burr stones used for grinding cement, plaster, and the like?

Yours truly,

WILLIMANSETT, Mass., Dec. 27, 1880.

JAMES EMERSON.

In the course of an article on wheat and its culture, in an agricultural journal, Mr. J. Z. Briscoe touches upon some facts which are of interest to our readers: The varieties of this grain are numerous, and are commonly known as bald wheat, bearded wheat, woolly wheat, fall or winter wheat, spring or summer wheat, etc. These varieties are numerously subdivided, and known in different localities by different names. The different varieties are so classified with regard to color, and known on the market under the names of white wheat and red wheat. The red varieties are generally considered the most hardy and productive, though inferior in quality, and producing less flour than the white. Clay soils and rich heavy loams are best adapted to the growth of this plant, but with good cultivation will flourish even on light sandy soils. Wheat has been cultiva ted from the earliest ages, and is, next to Indian corn, the most productive of all the cereals. It was a chief crop in Palestine and Egypt from their earliest history, and is now cultivated in the temperate parts of nearly all lands; but in the torrid zones it only succeeds in elevated situations.

This s one of the finest mills in the country, both in point of design and convenience, the substantial character of the building and machinery, and the high finish and excellence of the workmanship. The plans were made in the fall of 1877, and in January, 1878, the entire contract was awarded to the Messrs. Allis & Co., who furnished the entire machinery and superintended the erection of the mill and power, turning it over to the owners, Messrs. Schoellkopf & Mathews, of Buffalo, N. Y., in September of that year, in complete running order.

"The mill and elevator are situated on the brink of that immense canon, nine miles long, which Niagara has worn out of the solid rock in the lapse of centuries, and whose depth at the mill is 310 feet. The location is something over a half mile from the Falls, and at the end of that expensive canal, though only a mile long, which taps Niagara River above the Rapids and Falls. The headrace is about 300 feet long, the sides being built of dressed stone laid in cement, and is arched the greater part of its length, There are two head-gates-one at the pond and the other at the bulk-head. This last is made of cut-stone, and is eighteen feet square, and deep enough to hold fifteen feet of water. Both raceway and bulk-head were made deep enough to stand over two feet of ice without