THE MILLING OF WHEAT 277 



15,500 barrels have been ground. The company is now expend- 

 ing $500,000 in enlarging the plant so that it will have a capa- 

 city of 17,000 barrels. The maximum milling capacity of the 

 Minneapolis mills aggregates a total of 82,765 barrels daily, and 

 this is to be increased to over 90,000 barrels before the close 

 of 1907. The great progress of the industry is best understood 

 when it is remembered that the first crude mill of the ancients 

 could not produce over 3 bushels of partly ground meal in one 

 day. Later, the Greeks ground from 5 to 10 bushels of meal 

 per day., 



The Flour Yield of Wheat. Soft wheat weighing 64 pounds 

 per bushel has been found to yield about 80 per cent of flour, 

 while that weighing 54 pounds yields about 65 per cent. The 

 heaviest hard wheat yields about 74 per cent of flour, while the 

 lightest yields 67 per cent. McDougall found that India wheat 

 yielded from 77 to 81 per cent of flour, English wheat 65 per 

 cent and American wheat 72 per cent. The flour yield will, of 

 course, vary from season to season, for it is dependent upon the 

 quality of the wheat. In 1905, it required 4 5-6 bushels of 

 wheat to make a barrel of flour in Minneapolis, while in previous 

 years it required only 4 1-3 bushels. According to a miller in 

 Kent, England, 4.2 bushels of wheat made a barrel of flour in 

 1876. Two centuries ago in New England, it required between 

 6 and 7 bushels. There has been a continual increase in the 

 amount of the highest grade of flour obtained. 



Toll. The first toll dish was the hand of the miller. In 

 England in 1300, the toll was one-twentieth of the wheat ground. 

 During the middle of the seventeenth century, the miller's toll 

 in New England was one-sixteenth of the wheat ground. Of 

 the thirteen original colonies, all but New York and Pennsyl- 

 vania had laws for regulating tolls, which varied from one- 

 fourth to one-sixteenth. The amount of labor required to grind 

 a barrel of flour at the close of the seventeenth century, if 

 expended at the close of the nineteenth century, had a market 

 value approximately equal to the cost of grinding a barrel of 

 flour in the latter period. In 1891, the legal toll in Minnesota 

 was one-eighth. Measured in wheat, this is twice the toll which 

 the miller received in New England 200 years ago. In the 

 cities and large towns, however, where wheat was exchanged 

 for flour on a cash basis, the cost of a barrel of flour would 



