The Evolution of Agricultural Implements. 243 
So long as the Continental public was not fastidious in the 
matter of its bread, the dark flours which “ low grinding ” 
produces from hard wheats found a sale abroad. But the taste 
of the consumer has grown refined of late years, so that, first, the 
Austro-Hungarian, and then the American millers, found them- 
selves obliged to march with the times. Hence arose the 
practice of “ high grinding,” or setting the millstones just so 
far apart that they crack the wheat berry into small particles, 
but do not grind it to powder. The cracking is repeated several 
times, and the products, called middlings, or “ semolina,” are 
winnowed after every operation, and the fragments of the in- 
terior of the wheat berry which remain are then crushed under 
“ low grinding ” stones into flour. 
By this system at least three qualities of flour are produced — 
viz. that from the first grinding, that from the pure, and that 
from the branny semolina. The first of these contains all the 
impurities which cling, even after careful cleaning, to the wheat 
berry ; the second is finer and whiter flour than can possibly 
be produced by low grinding ; while the third is a coarse branny 
flour. 
The success of high grinding depends on finding markets 
at high prices for the finest flours, and, fifteen years ago, these 
were selling in England for from 10s. to 20s. a sack more than 
the home-made article. For a long time, indeed, the Conti- 
nental miller was able to dispose of all his fine flours at a high 
price abroad, while he found a market at home for the inferior 
bran flours. 
But this state of affairs did not last. America adopted the 
“ new process,” and exploited it with her usual energy. Mid- 
dlings flour was produced regardless of yields, for, at the prices 
then ruling, the miller could afford to ignore the quantity of 
wheat required to make a barrel of flour. The demand for very 
fine flour is, however, limited, and as the price of “patent flour” 
was pulled down the question of yields forced itself again on 
the miller’s attention. Then came modifications of the “ new 
process,” going by various names, and, finally, the system of 
“ gradual reduction ” by means of roller mills. 
Holler mills were introduced experimentally in Switzerland 
about 1825, and installed on a large scale, in 1838, at Buda- 
Pesth, which town may be considered as the cradle of the 
system.' The recently discovered work of Wilhelm Fritzch on 
‘ [jEditorial JVote .] — In the course of a visit to Hungary, in the autumn of 
1890, I took the opportunity of thoroughly inspecting at Buda-Pesth the 
first roller-mill ever established, now one of the largest in the world. This 
mill has had quite a history. It was founded in 1838, by the famous Count 
