Newspaper Page Text
[Entkkko at thi Post Omen, iw Atlamta, Gkoimia, fob THtwnroKTATiox thbopoh the United State* Mail* at second Cun Rati
Pm
ipfll
j
Hr
r§5
■
JR\
'iSSSSSSsh. JSI 2$
TWICE AM<>NTir.} YOL. II.
ATLANTA, GA„ NOVEMBER 1, 1882.
No. 1.
A SOCTII AMERICAN FLOURING HILL
We Americana often bitterly complain be
cause Europeans know so little of us, our
country and our institutions; but European
ignorance of the United States finds a ready
parallel in our Ignorance of the southern
half of our own hemisphere. Conquered by
the Spaniards long before our own coasts
were settled, the states of South America
have had a development of their own in
directions entirely different from those
which wo have followed in our part of the
world. It is true that anarchy has reigned
almost supreme in many of the South Ameri
can republics since the day they achieved
their independence from Spain; and it is
unqestionable that some of them have gone
into a decline which nothing but a change
of population through extensive immigra
tion from hardy countries in Europe can
ever check. In others, how
ever, progress is making rapid
headway; railways being built,
immigration is invited, and
impetus given to the rapid de
velopment of the naturally
great resources of most parts of
the southern continent. The
two most prosperous republics
of South America are Chili and
the Argentine Republic. Both
of them are known to the mill
ing world as the only shippers
of wheat to outside nations.
Chili has long exported wheat
and flour extensively, and it is
not so very long ago that much
of the flour consumed in our
own Pacific States came from
Chilian ports. The Argentine
Republic comprises a vast area
of fertile country admirably
adapted to the culture of wheat.
Indeed, all that is needed to
make our southern neighbor a
formidable rival of ours in the
markets of Europe, in the mat
ter of wheat exportation, is the
extension of facilities for com
munication with the interior.
These are rapidly being built,
and already the Republic ex
ports 30,000 tons of wheat an
nually. There is more immi
gration to this republic than to
all other South American re
publics combined, and possi
bly, as the vast plains fill up
with tillers of the soil, we may find the Ar
gentine States an unpleasant competitor in
both wheat and flour; for under the clear
sxies of that country, where the thermome
ter rarely falls below forty degrees and as
rarely rises above ninety, farmers can till
the soil all the year around, and many of
them raise two crops a year. But our object
in this connection is neither to describe the
country, nor to dilate upon its future pros
pects.
We give on this page an engraving of one
of its flour mills and elevators, the Molino
Carcarana, built on the Carcarana River, in
the province of Santa Fe, thirty miles from
the city of Rosario, on the line of the Cen
tral Argentine Railway from Rosario to Cor-
duba. The owners of the mill are a stock
company, one of which is Mr. H. Q. Hill,
formerly a well-known miller of Lyons,
Iowa. The machinery for this mill was
shipped from the establishment of the John
T. Noye Mfg. Co. in June, 1875. It consists
of five run of burrs, three sets of rolls, eight
bolting reelsand all the usual and necessary
machinery, among which we may enumerate
a full line of Moline cleaning machinery,
Becker Brush, Eureka Smut ter, Excelsior
Bran Duster, Excelsior •'Purifier, packer,
three Garden City Purifiers, etc.
The power is fumi-hed by six turbines,
one for each run Of stone and one for the
other machinery. There is a dam across the
river, which, for fully ten months in the
year, affords three hundred horse power.
The mill was started up on the first of April,
1876, and has run night and day most of the
time since, turning out 150 bags of flour of
200 pounds each, per day. The mill’s trade
is entirely wi th bakers, who require a strong
flour, for which the wheat raised in the
Province of Santa Fe is especially adapted,
being a hard, flinty wheat very similar to
Minnesota Hard Spring. The capacity of
the mill was increased by some very consid
erable additions last spring in order to meet
the demand for their flour.
The elevator is operated by a 48-inch
American turbine, and has a storage capacity
of 75,000 bushels. Both the mill nnd eleva
tor are essentially American institutions
even to their operation, the millers employ
ed being mostly Americans. Mr. J. W. Allen
is the bead miller. A few more such mills,
as the one we have described will, no doubt,
give our Baltimore and Richmond millers
more competition in the Brazilian markets
than they would care to encounter.—Ameri
can Miller.
The Common Hnsliroont and Its Poison.
> The current belief is that, while many
fungi are virulently poisonous, others, in
cluding the common mushroom, are free
from poison and may be eaten in any quan
tity. When mushroom-eaters show symp
toms of poisoning, it is accordingly assumed
that a blunder has been made, and noxious
species taken for or with the wholesome ones.
The fact that an eminent English fungiolo-
gist is numbered among those who have lost
their lives by the alleged mistake, would
seem to throw grave'doubt upon the blun
der theory, unless it be true, as some have
held, that the edible species are mimicked
by those that are poisonous so closely that
the most expert is liable to misjudge them.
The fear that this may be the case deters
many from making any use of this savory
and nourishing but treacherous vegetable.
At this season, when the fields abound
with wild mushrooms, and when multitudes
might find in them a cheap and enjoyable
addition to the daily bill of faro if they were
not afraid to eat them, it is a matter of con
siderable importance to have the real stand
ing of fungi as food-stuff's made clear.
According to recent investigations by
Prof. Ponfick, of Breslau, the question seems
to be, not how to distinguish poisonous from
harmless species, but how to treat mush
rooms of every sort in such a way as to re
move or neutralize the poison which they all
contain, with the proper precaution of using
this class of food-stuff's at all times with mod
eration.
Professor Ponfick finds that repeated wash
ings with cold water removes most of the
poison of mushrooms, and cooking, especial
ly boiling, dissolves out the rest. The wa
ter in which mushrooms are boiled, how
ever, is always poisonous, more so even than
raw mushrooms. Experiments made upon
dogs showed that if a dog ate one per cent,
of its own weight of raw mushrooms it fell
sick, but recovered; one and a-half per cent,
produced violent illness; and if the dogate
two per cent, of its weight, the result was al
ways death. Of boiled mushrooms dogs ate
ten per cent, of their weight without harm.
When the mushrooms were well-washed
with cold water, a larger quantity could be
eaten raw without bad effects than was pos
sible with those that were not washed ; but
simple washing never removed the poison
entirely. Dried mushrooms were found to
be dangerous for twenty days, and also the
water in which such mushrooms had been
boiled. They were not really safe until af
ter four months' drying.
The moral is: Treat all mushrooms as
poisonous; carefully throw out the water
in which they have been washed or boiled;
cook them well, and never eatjliem in large
quantities. If men are no more susceptible
than dogs are to the poison, a man can as
safely gorge himself with well-boiled mush
rooms as with beef or any other highly ni
trogenous food. When otherwise cooked, or
when the species is doubtful, a sparing use is
always prudent.
The fact that all mushrooms and allied
growths are more or less poisonous should be
no bar to their use as food, proper care be
ing taken in the cooking and eating. The
common potato is not free from poison; and
the juice of the root from which tapioca is
made is a virulent poison. The latter pois
on is expelled by beat, and the
former is in quantity too small
to be harmful, as is the case
with many other useful vege
tables.
In preparing mushrooms for
the table, safety is assured, not
by looking for specific charac
teristics supposed to indicate
harmlessness, but in consider
ing alias poisonous and requir
ing judicious treatment to de
stroy or remove their noxious
qualities. Thus properly at
tended to, mushrooms and
many other fungi are not only
edible, but really delicious and
valuable food-stuff's,—[Sci'eati/fe
American.
profitable Knowledge.
There can be no doubt but
that a large majority of farmers
limit their range of vision inju
riously by steady application
of labor during what is called
the busy season, which is, in
fact, the greater portion of the
year. They work with insuffic
ient knowledge because they do
not estimate at it its true value
instruction derived from ob
servation beyond the narrow
limits of their fields. The de
mand upon their powers are
exhaustive, and there is weari
some response until thought
flags, thenceforth stolid labor
without the refreshing influence of intelli
gence in direction. It is the tendency to
this course that makes farm life seem like
dull plodding, as in too many cases it really
is. Of course the tasks of the farm are tasks
to be executed. Farming is a business that
yields no profit without labor, but it does
not follow that profit bears steady and di
rect relations to labor, according to its ex
tent. There must be intelligence to direct
effort or the result will be very uncertain.
Broader information, wider scope of knowl
edge, extended acquaintance with methods
and capabilities are the fitting for successful
effort. In this view it is quite necessary
that every farmer should know what his
neighbors do, how they manage their flolds
what now and instructive lessons are record
ed in their practices. And no farmer can
expect to develop all this by trial restricted
to his own powers, nor is there need that he
should attempt the task by a method so
hopeless. He can avail himself of wbat
wisdom his neighbors have if he will only
observe. Let him go among them seeking
aid.