MILLING 155 



explaining. It is so finely woven that it seems 

 impossible for flour to go through it. He shows 

 us how screens made of this cloth are fitted into 

 the great tank-like cases, which are really silk 

 bottom sieves. These are shaken by machinery, 

 and thus the flour is sifted through the cloth. 

 This process is called bolting. 



Coming down again to the first floor, we stop for 

 a while to watch the sacking of the flour. The 

 sacks are stamped with the name of the mill and 

 the grade of the flour. They are filled automati- 

 cally. Men, however, handle the filled sacks and 

 sew them up. We stay here for some time, for 

 this is fascinating work. The man lifts the sack 

 from the filler and weighs it. He then takes a 

 thread from his belt and, threading it through 

 the needle, wraps it about one corner of the top of 

 the sack, thus making an ear. Lightning-like he 

 sews up the opening, makes the other ear, takes 

 off the remaining thread, and lifts the sack to the 

 truck. This is all done so quickly that we hardly 

 distinguish the processes. It looks like a sleight- 

 of-hand performance and we remain until we can 

 follow his rapid movements. 



The miller tells us that many large mills turn 

 out 1500 barrels of flour per day. This, compared 

 with the few bushels of poorly ground meal that 

 the old mills produced, is enormous. 



Our tour of the mill is finished. We feel that 



