July i, 1891.] 
THE TROPICI^L AORIOOLTUlMl 
75 
Italy prodaoes the bulk of the meoaroni of 
commerce. Conetituting as it does a staple article 
of diet in that country, its manufacture, indeed 
is said to be as much a part of the household 
duties of many Italians as is bread-making in our 
own country. Naturally the domestic product is 
made by hand, but in many of the large factories 
the work is done almost wholly by steam power, 
though in others hand power aloue is employed. 
The production of macaroni in the household does 
not requite many or complicated appliances. They 
consist amply of a smooth board, a piece of marble 
for kneading and a common rolliogpin. A mixture 
IS first formed of wheat meal or flour and eggs, 
the proportion being one pound of the former to 
four or five of the latter. This is dampened with 
hot water, then kneaded for aevoral minutes, and 
et last is roiled into very thin sheets with the 
pm. These sheets are loft some fifteen or twenty 
minutes on the board to dry, and as soon as it is 
surface of the sheets is no longer 
adhesive they are rolled up as tight as possible. 
Shoes are next cutoff the ends, and as they separate 
they form strings of maoaiwni and are in shape 
to ba used. This is the primitive method. In the 
ordinary commercial process the meal is merely 
mixed with hot water, and the dough is forced 
molds or dies which give it its familiar form. 
The sm .11 factories found in nearly every part 
of Italy, which are operated entirely by hands 
number in the thousands. In many instances the 
laotory consists of a single room (this does not 
include the drying-rooms), which serves for a 
salesroom as^ well. The labor is performed by the 
owner of the establiahmeut, with the assistance 
of one or two n en, his wife acting in the capacity 
01 saleswoman. If the ex,jense entailed in inuning 
such a laotory were oonsiuerable the proprietor could 
ot compote successfully with larger and mors per- 
eotly equipped concerns. As it is, the price of this 
. *°®*nery is light, the cost for labor small, varying 
om 30o. to 60c. per diem, while the expense of 
ryiDg ig g mere nothing. In most oases artificial 
neat js rarely used, but in instanoes where it is 
omplojed the macaroni manufacturer is also a 
ftker, and is able to utilize the waste heat by 
mptovising drying-rooms over the ovens. It is 
authority, that in the majority of 
ohaoti, 1 factories “ extreme neatness is 
onnA i-'." ®''®ry part of the operation where a 
that macaroni is made.” It is estimated 
from production per day per man is 
j pounds, and the cost of labor per 
is nftr '* 1 °*^ exceed one third of a cent, and 
®«on less than one- quarter of a cent, 
are largest macaroni manufactories 
nerfeot fitted up with the most modern and 
ThTlarZit “btamablo, and run by steam. 
Italy boasts ®®®®> presumably in all 
lishment m * *,‘“^8® Amerioan engine. This estab- 
macroni ‘I*® “®®1 
to so fuliv nrnvVl°'*^ likewise, and it is that ability 
bothinir and a,hno * plant has cost him almost 
8eneraUvSov«i°“‘’d“‘"“®'°“‘ the wheat most 
the IftTe^ ra"!’ 
Italian, which fs preferred thHr^®’ 
*S'3fn.u.e’' nf ^nrVi in the munufaoture of 
the latter in th grades are made, and 
says that nf th^ Hour. One authority 
»yB that of the Wheat mentioned the Italian species 
” grown in Apulia is the hardest and strongest, 
and therefore the best for macaroni. Foreign wheat 
is never bought for this purpose if Italian oan 
be had. The Indian wheat, though displaying a 
fair color, is apt to be weak. Good macaroni 
cannot be made from soft or tender wheat." In a 
reoent series of eonsular reports on the subjoat 
there is but one mention of the use ot Amerioen 
wheat.” That is in a pastsoript appended to the 
report of James Fleteber, consul at Osnoa, wbioh 
states ppeoiftoally : " K. Kavano, of Quinto, a 
village about five miles from Genoa, has just 
informed me that he uses American wheat extensively 
in the manufacture of macaroni for home con- 
sumption.” This suggests Eoopo tor further toreigu 
trade engagements. It is pleasing to note in the 
same connection that more or less machinery used 
in the largest and most sucoesstul maoaroni 
factories in Italy bears the imprint ot Amerioan 
makers. 
The transformation of meal into macaroni in 
the steam-working establishments is simply an 
elaboration of the hand process, doing away with 
much of its laboriouBness and admitting many 
amplifications and improvements. In some districts 
it is steadily maintained, however, that the quality 
of the hand. made article has yet to be won by 
the machine product. 
It has not been possible to ascertain the exact 
amount of maoaroni exported, or, in fact, the 
quantity consumed at home. The reason assigned 
for this is that, in the first case, captains of veseels 
leaving for the United States and other countries 
take on board oonsiderable quantities of maoaroni 
ostensibly and deolaredly for their own use, but 
shipped really to help supply the foreign market. 
In the case of homo oonsumpiion, again, the article 
is so largely provided in the family, espeoislly 
of the middle and peasant elasses, that accurate 
estimates oannot well bo obtained. In 1890 the re> 
oorded exports from Italy to the United States 
and Canada amounted to 137.6 tons out ot a total 
exportation of 673 tons. Ot the product of France 
probably one fourth is exported, and one-third of 
this amount is sent to the United States. More 
or less macaroni is manufactured here, but the 
amount is trivial in oompatison with that imported. 
— Bradstreet's. 
AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING. 
A oorrespondent, an expert in agrioultural engineer- 
ing, writes os follows : — “ Dr. Voelckor, though one of 
our most eminent sgrioalinral chemists, has not resid, d 
long enough in India to be au infallible authority on 
practical agrionlture. Ooe of his objeotions to d lep 
ploughing is that the Knglisb form of pi fUgh wnuld 
compress the furrow, and the hot sun would bake it to 
the bard iie.ss of bricks. So it would, if the cultivatir 
used it when the land was wet and sodden, with no im- 
mediate prospect of more r.iiii, and so would the native 
plough ; but in no part ef India would oultivators be 
fouud so iueiperioDced as to do that. Moreover the 
mould board plough of the present day does not compress 
the laud into a oompact farrow, like the Uuglisb 
mould-boards of twenty years ago ; they are now made 
short so ns !o break the furrow as it is rolled over: auya 
oue who has used the Amerioan * Hindostani ’ plough 
will bear me out in what I ray. There can be no 
question of the snperiority of deep ploughing over 
shalluw in India ;* it is borne ont by both theory and 
practice, and ail iutoihgout native oiiltiTators are 
aware of this ; bnt the tronble with most of them is 
that they cannot afford to pay for large plongh bullookt 
Buifablo for deeper cultivation. — Fioneer, June 2nd. 
* Meaning by “ deep ploughing ” 
ntmost, instead ot abovt 1.— Fp, 2\ 
6 iuohes, or 8 at thq 
A, 
