338 
Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
“ Milwaukee, October 4, 1875. 
“J. W. Wood, Esq: 
“ My Dear Sir: —Your letter is before me. I have been for twenty 
years identified with the flour-trade, and part of it interested- in 
milling, but I am not a practical miller, and therefore not compe¬ 
tent to talk authoritatively on the subject; but I will be very glad 
to give you the benefit of any knowledge or experience I have. 
The hard varieties of spring wheat are the only kinds that are really 
adapted to make ‘patent 1 flours profitabty, and of all hard wheats 
I have seen raised here the kind known as Fife is the best. The 
general reason why it is the best is, that it is hard and flinty and 
makes the most middlings. The details of the process are not of 
special importance to the farmers, so much as the main fact that 
this is the kind of wheat which the new style of milling calls for, 
and there can be no doubt that it will continue in demand, for the 
success of the so-called ‘ new process 1 is an established fact. Our 
millers are now not only supplying the trade in this country, but 
competing in the British markets with the very highest class— 
Hungarian and other flours—that have long commanded the ex¬ 
treme prices of any flour made. 
u The Hungarian mills have for a long time reached the same re¬ 
sults in making flour, with very clumsy and slow machinery, which 
our mills are doing by the improvements gotten up within the last 
few years; and every new mill fitted up seeks to improve, in some 
respects, on the others. The only question in respect to our favor¬ 
able competition with the world in the highest grade of flours, is 
the supply of suitable wheat. In Liverpool, last summer, I had 
tests made by bakers with some of the highest class of Hungarian 
flour and a flour made by one of our best mills in this city. In my 
opinion, and that of all the experienced dealers who examined the 
bread, that made from the Milwaukee flour was fully as good, and 
the bakers who made the test have since been purchasers of that 
flour here, to take the place of the Hungarian. Flour can be 
made by patent process from almost any wheat, and it is true that 
many millers use softer and inferior wheats, from supposed econo¬ 
my, etc., but the better class of mills are all the time in search 
of the finest, hardest wheats. This led, last year, to the establish¬ 
ment of the grade of ‘Hard No. I 1 wheat in this city, and the de¬ 
mand for it is usually more than the supply, at a difference of from 
