reason is, that the new system, with its more intricate processes and maze of machinery, is more economically run on a large scale. THE MILL EXPLOSION OF 1878, The history of Minnesota milling would not be complete without reference to the great explosion of 1878, perhaps the greatest catastrophe in the history of milling. Cut in a stone tablet on the north side of the "Washburn A" mill are the following words: 1879, ON THE SITE OF WASHBURN MILL "A, E. W. BURBANK, CYRUS W. "Labor, wide as earth, Has its summit in Heaven." This inscription tells the story. It was the largest and best equipped mill at that time in America. It was 138 by 110 feet on the ground, six-and-one-half stories high, and was fitted out with 42 run of French buhr stone, 100 reels, and 80 purifiers. The walls were of solid masonry, and for the first story were six feet thick, and built down to the bedrock. The 80 purifiers had small fars, but no dust collectors. The mill was full of dust, and the millers commonly wore sponges for the protection of mouth and nose. The walls were blown down to the foundation and fell outward. W. D. Gray, a mill expert, who at one time was employed in tle Washburn mills, speaks of previous experiences which the millers had with the explosion of mill-dust. At one time several of the men had a severe shock from a slight explosion, and at another time the roof was partially lifted by the explosion in a dust room. In the great explosion of 1878, the fire is supposed to have : + started in some of the machinery before its communication to the dust room. There were eighteen lives lost, as partly named above, and six mills were wholly destroyed, as follows: Washburn A, 42 run; Diamond, 6 run; Humboldt, 8 run; Zenith, 6 run; Galaxy, 12 run; and Pettit-Robinson, 15 run; total, 99 run of stone. They were all promptly rebuilt with purifiers and buhr stones, not waiting for rolls, which at that time were being experimentally introduced. Property was damaged by the explosion in cases nearly a mile away, and the total loss exceeded a million dollars. Governor C. C. Washburn, at the time, was building a new mill near the others. On the morning after the explosion he paced off a distance beyond the foundation as planned, and, driving a stake at the point to which he paced, said to the architect: "Build your mill out to here;" and it was done. The hastily added space, however, gave the new "Washburn C" more room than it could economically utilize until 1899. MINNESOTA FLOUR EXPORT TRADE, In 1858, the year Minnesota became a state, the people of this great wheat and flour producing commonwealth, according to the authority of both Joseph A.Wheelock and Ignatius Donnelly, were compelled to import a considerable portion of their flour. Horace Greeley, in a letter to J. W. McClung in 1858, confessed that his earliest impression of Minnesota was unfavorable, on the following ground: "I saw that your state imported not only loafers in great abundance, but the bread they ate as well as the whisky they drank; and I did not see how she could stand it (you must pardon my weakness) in the defection of home industry." The state statistician, Joseph A. Wheelock, found in 1859, however, that we were beginning to export flour. He discovered that we shipped out by way of La Crosse and Prairie du Chien, for example, 403 bales of buffalo robes, 100 bales of furs, 343 bushels of cranberries, 70,218 pounds of ginseng, and the grand total of 114 barrels of flour. Such was the first ripple of the tidal wave to follow. From 1860 to 1870 Minnesota shipments of flour to eastern markets gradually increased until they reached several hundred thousand barrels. Among the leaders in this eastward business were Archibald of Dundas and Gardner of Hastings, the "Vermillion flour" of the latter being a much celebrated brand. It was not until 1878, however, that Minneapolis began to send direct exports abroad, independently of the New York and Boston middlemen. The delay and cost incident to shipment through the hands of eastern agents at length could not be borne, and Gov. C. C. Washburn got the well-known milling and elevator man, W. H. Dunwoody, to spend several months abroad and secure direct relations with European buyers. There was great opposition among New York middlemen for a time; but the enterprise was a complete success. Direct exports from Minneapolis to foreign ports began in 1878 with 107,183 barrels. In five years the figure was multiplied ten times. For a period of years our direct export trade was stable, but comparatively stationary, and then after 1890 it again advanced. In 1890 our direct exports were 2,000,000 barrels, and in 1891 3,000,000 was reached. In 1899 Minneapolis topped 4,000,ooo barrels as the direct export to foreign markets; and in 1900 it was 4,702,485, being one-fourth of the total exports of flour from the United States. Next to Minneapolis as a direct exporter stands Duluth, which in 1898 reached close to 1,000,000 barrels. The principal foreign consumer of Minneapolis flour is the United Kingdom. During the ten months ending with October last, there were exported from the United States to foreign markets, all told, something over 15,000,000 barrels of flour; but over 8,000,000 barrels, or more than one-half, went to the United Kingdom. Next after Great Britain, the best consumer of American flour is the West Indies; and then follow, in order, Hong Kong, Brazil, and Germany. Oregon and other Pacific coast mills principally supply the Hong Kong and other Oriental trade, and the mills of our more southerly and easterly states have paid more attention than Minnesota to the West India and South American trade. Great Britain and the European continent are the principal foreign market for Minnesota flour. But geography and differences of language and customs are no obstacles to the Minnesota miller. He obliterates time, distance, and nationality, if there is a mouth on the globe that can eat bread; and Minnesota flour is the most cosmopolitan thing on the earth today. It is eaten by the German and the Jap, the Englishman and the Boer. It goes to the Arctic and the tropic zones, and conquers all competitors, colors, and climes. Minnesota flour shipments are a large factor in the business of the Soo canal; and the traffic of that great inland channel marks in a way the progress of Minnesota flour sales in eastern and foreign markets. In 1871, when the new milling process was just beginning to see day in Minneapolis, the flour shipments of the Soo canal were only 26,000 barrels. In 1881 the Soo canal flour shipments had multiplied twenty-fold and were 600,000 barrels. By 1891 nearly 4,000,000 barrels were reached; and for the year just closed the total will reach 8,000,000. Today over 90 per cent. of the flour ground in Minnesota is eaten by eastern states and foreign nations, and of the Minneapolis product over 97 per cent. is shipped away, the shipments of the year just closed reaching 14,800,000 barrels, of which one-third is eaten abroad and the balance in the eastern states. 1 MINNESOTA MILLS IN 1900. The census of 1890 gave Minnesota 307 flour and grist mills, employing 4,038 hands at $2,243,855 wages, and paying out $52,383,857 for grain, while turning out $60,158,088 worth of flour. There are in Minnesota in 1901 about 400 flour and grist mills. The capacity of twenty-one mills at Minneapolis exceeds 75,000 barrels daily, and they grind annually 70,000,000 bushels of wheat into 15,000,000 barrels of flour. The state gazetteer enumerates about 200 Minnesota mills, outside of Minneapolis and Duluth, with an aggregate daily capacity of over 42,000 barrels, and 180 others whose capacity is not given. Placing the capacity of this 180 conservatively at 20,000 barrels, we arrive at about 140,000 barrels daily as the milling capacity of the state. It is fair therefore to state that Minnesota mills consume from 110,000,000 to 120,000,000 bushels of grain per annum, and turn out upwards of 25,000,000 barrels of flour a year, which is enough to sustain one-third of the nation. The ten largest milling centers in America today, as measured by their flour output in 1899, are as follows: Detroit, 594,700 barrels; Nashville, 630,803; Buffalo, 1,068,944; Kansas City, 1,094,846; Chicago, 1,125,745; Toledo, 1,150,000; St. Louis, 1,166,439;Milwaukee, 1,737,826; Duluth-Superior, 1,763,920; Minneapolis, 14,291,780. It is gratifying that Minnesota contains within her boundaries the two largest milling centers in the Union, : and that one of them grinds more flour in a year than all the other nine put together and 4,000,000 barrels added. In conclusion, permit me to say that at the World's Exposition at Paris during the past year, bread made from Minnesota flour carried off the prize medal for the best bread in the world, and that Minnesota flour likewise took the first premium in the contest for the best flour in the world, showing that Minnesota holds the world's sweepstakes both for the quantity and quality of product. |