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32 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 



SUGAR BEETS. 



Much time and labor were given to the sugar beets as related to tlie 

 agricultural and manufacturing industries of the State. In the Round-up 

 Farmers' Institute at the College in February, 1898, the subject was pre- 

 sented in a lecture with illustrations and charts. 



ADULTERATION OF WHEAT FLOUR. 



The Chemical Department has taken a lively interest in the wheat crop 

 of this State by tlie selection of new and better varieties of wheat for the 

 use of our farmers. It has not been indifferent to processes of adultera- 

 tion of wheat flour as i:»racticed in some parts of our country. The grind- 

 ing and shipment of train loads of inert rock (''Mineraline'') in Greens- 

 boro, N. C, to adulterate flour for human food and feeding stuffs for ani- 

 mals have not passed unnoticed. But the widespread practice of adultera- 

 ting wheat flour with products of Indian corn, which at one time threat- 

 ened to drive out the honest miller and even destroy our foreign trade 

 in flour, attracted the special attention of this department. A letter from 

 W. A. Coombs of Coidwater, in March, 1898. showed the pecuniary 

 temptation for the miller to engage in this disreputable business. Mr. 

 Coombs wrote: "A miller told me that he run in 270 barrels of corn flour 

 into his flour daily, and at a profit of ^2.50 for each barrel of corn meal" — 

 or a clear cash profit of .|fi75 a day for being a rascal I A Chicago firm 

 was sending out to the millers of the country circulars to show the large 

 profit in ''blending corn ])roducts with wheat flour" and sending specimens 

 of "Flourine" and "Corn Flour" to be used for degrading this best gift of 

 a bountiful Providence for the use of man. Samples of these adulterants 

 were secured and analyzed, and the '-Flourine" found to be corn starch, 

 and "Corn Flour" a finely-ground meal made from white corn, or common 

 corn bleached by sulphurous acid. 



A barrel of this "blended flour" was obtained from Louisville, Ky., and 

 another from Nashville, Tenn.. to test the bread-making and nutritive 

 value of such material in comparison with a low grade flour made in Mich- 

 igan. Specimens of these flours were put up in paper sacks, numbered 

 1, 2 and 8. and were placed in the hands of expert bread makers at the 

 College and in the city to test the doughing quality of each kind, how^ it 

 responded to the action of yeast and how it behaved in the oven. The 

 report of these experts was unanimous that No. 2 (third-class Michigan 

 flour) was better than Nos. 1 and .3 (Kentucky and Tennessee flours). A 

 jury of food experts at the College consisting of the wives of the pro- 

 fessors and ladies in the Women's Department, with the help of some of 

 the professors, then considered the quality of the bread made from these 

 flours. The verdict was again in favor of a third-class Michigan flour in 

 preference to the "blended flours." 



I was glad to learn that out of the large number of :Michigan millers, 

 only one turned into the broad and easy Chicago path leading to dis- 

 honest wealth, and he soon returned to straight paths. 



Out of the dark cloud of the Spanish war came forth a blessing alike to 

 farmer, miller and bread eater in "the Tawney bill," which required a 

 license to be taken by the miller who thus adulterated his flour, and a 

 government stamp to be placed on every barrel of such floni' offered for 



