CHAPTER XIII 



GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD 



T \ 7E have now seen the machinery by which 

 the wheat is cut, moved, stored, financed, 

 and marketed. Its next and last step, as wheat, 

 is to the Flour-mill, whence it goes to the 

 bakeries, the groceries, and the homes of six 

 hundred million people. Here, too, there have 

 had to come new methods since the advent of 

 the Reaper. 



In the Dark Ages of the sickle and the flail, 

 two flat stones did well enough for a flour-mill. 

 Even the bread that was found in the ruins of 

 Pompeii had been made of wheat that was merely 

 crushed. Later came the mill run by horse- 

 power or by the energy of a little stream. Such 

 were the first American mills. The mill that 

 was operated by George Washington at Mount 

 Vernon, for instance, was run by water-power 

 and produced flour that sold for thirteen dollars 

 a barrel. Rochester, N. Y., was the first Amer- 

 ican "Flour City"; but the modern flour-mill 



