181 
If our wheat, on an average, is as good now as it was for¬ 
merly, it becomes an interesting inquiry to arrive at the true 
and real cause why our flour is so much inferior to a large 
portion manufactured in several southern states, from wheat 
in several particulars inferior to ours. As there is no just 
cause to rest a belief that our grain has depreciated, the 
low repute of our flour is to be found principally in the im¬ 
proper mode of manufacturing, pursued by too many of the 
millers of this state, but especially those denominated mer¬ 
chant millers. 
A practice has obtained sanction among many extensive 
manufacturers residing at no great distance from this port, 
and improperly countenanced by several public functiona¬ 
ries, which goes directly to destroy the essential and most 
beneficial qualities of the grain. These manufacturers are 
notorious for grinding excessively close, and some for re- 
grinding a large portion of the middlings so closely that it 
is made to pass their finest bolting cloth : this flour is mix¬ 
ed with the first portion that is bolted from the first grinding, 
and all is thrown into the packing chest and mixed togeth¬ 
er, and finally put up for superfine flour. To the eye this 
mass appears very fine; but when mixed with water it is very 
deficient in elasticity, and when worked by the hand is sim¬ 
ilar to clay mixed with water. No inspector general, pos¬ 
sessing any tolerable knowledge of the nature and requisite 
properties of good flour, would have given any countenance 
to a practice so palpably ruinous to the article itself, and 
detrimental to the reputation and interests of our state. 
It does not comport with the design and limits prescribed 
to this paper, to enter into an investigation of all the proper¬ 
ties of the farinaceous substance under consideration.— 
While I am frank to acknowledge my inability to enter into 
a minute examination of the elementary as well as aliment¬ 
ary properties and qualities of wheat, I shall not hesitate to 
say, that the most eminent chemists of Europe, as well as 
distinguished professional gentlemen of our own country, 
