THE MILLING OF WHEAT 269 



was now possible to make an excellent and pure flour from 

 winter wheat, for the middlings thus purified were reground to 

 superfine flour, which brought more per barrel than the best flour 

 formerly in the market. As an indication of its superior grade 

 it was called ''patent" flour. The "new" process consisted of 

 four parts, for purifying and regrinding the middlings were 

 added to the "old" process. In the first operation the wheat 

 was "granulated," not ground. These particles, technically 

 known as "middlings," were run through the middlings puri- 

 fier and then reground. Being of great advantage, the process 

 was further developed by introducing more stages. The grain 

 was now ground very coarsely and the endeavor was to make 

 as little flour as possible at the first grind, and the largest pos- 

 sible amount of middlings. 



Ever since the sixteenth century, when good flour began to be 

 manufactured at the mills, and bolting had been introduced, 

 winter wheat at all times and places had commanded a larger 

 price than spring wheat. Spring wheat flour was usually of a 

 dark and inferior grade, valued considerably below winter wheat 

 flour. With the opening of the wheat regions of north central 

 United States, however, spring wheat was produced in enormous 

 quantities, even at the lower price which was paid for it, and 

 there was great need of an improved process of milling which 

 would produce a high grade of flour from spring wheat. Spring 

 wheat proved to be better suited to grinding by the continually 

 improving process of high milling than winter wheat, for being 

 harder, it yielded a greater percentage of middlings. This had 

 been its great disadvantage under the old processes of milling, 

 where the purpose was to get flour at the first grinding, and not 

 middlings. All unpurified middlings are foul, and when re- 

 ground they produced a low grade of flour. When the purifier 

 remedied this difficulty, the best grade of flour was that made 

 from the middlings, and almost at a single bound spring wheat 

 took front rank as a flour producer. The winter wheat flour 

 now became second grade instead of being the best. 



Roller Milling. The hard quality of spring wheat and the 

 increasing number of " breaks, " or stages in the milling process, 

 necessitated new improvements. Rolls made of porcelain or of 

 chilled iron were now devised to take the place of the time- 

 honored millstone. The "new" process of high milling was 



