EARLY HISTOEY OF WHEAT-GROWING 31 



industry between the years 1870 and 1880. In 1870 

 there was introduced into Minnesota the first purifier, a 5 

 device for separating branny particles from midlings and f 

 flour, which had been invented in France by Perrigault. ' 

 Before the advent of the purifier, the method of milling 

 was such that the intrinsic value of the flour of hard spring 

 wheat was unknown and unsuspected: spring-wheat flour 

 was regarded as far inferior to flour from winter-wheat 

 on account of the fact that although it was strong and pro- 

 duced well-risen loaves, it was of poor color. With the 

 coming of the purifier which was first used in connection 

 with mill-stones and afterwards with chilled-iron rollers, 

 all this was changed, for the new machine enabled the 

 miller to grind from the hitherto despised hard spring 

 wheat a product with the desired whiteness, which, on ac- 

 count of its strength, immediately commanded a price 

 equal to the best flour from winter wheat.^^ " This," says 

 Edgar, " gave a great impetus to milling in the North- 

 West, increased the demand for spring wheat, rendered 

 valuable the crops of Minnesota, the Dakotas, and western 

 Canada, and led to the agricultural development of that 

 section of the western continent. Spring-wheat flour 

 sprang into favor in America, and when introduced abroad, 

 especially in the United Kingdom, won its way against all 

 competition. In the end, the demand for it caused British 

 millers to remodel their mills and grind a mixture of 

 home-grown and American wheats." ^^ Had it not been 

 for the invention of the purifier, it is certain that the grow- 

 ing of spring wheat in the West would have been greatly 

 retarded, cereal breeding at Ottawa might not have been 

 begun so early as it was, and Marquis wheat, to which the 



i William Edgar, The Story of a Grain of Wheat, London, pp. 

 155-156. 

 62 lUd. 



