History, Winnebago County, Wisconsin: Its cities, towns, resources, people

              INYENTION OF EOLLEE FLOUE MILL. 417
but was not the non-cutting roller mill invented in Neenah, now the universal milling method used in all the civilized world.
A finer taste in more refined England constantly urged upon the skill of the miller a whiter flour. The effort of the miller was put forth to the utmost to refine the pulverized mass that poured from between the millstones, but his highest effort had only re¬ sulted in about 20 per cent, or one-fifth good flour, or flour that was granular and light colored or white; but the bran and mid¬ dlings were still rich in products not removed and there was crude milling. At this state of the art Eochester became a great milling center, and about 1868 to 1870 Neenah, Wisconsin, was a leading Western milling mart.^ In 1860 Minneapolis was a sawmill town with a population of 5,809. In 1870 it had 13,066 people. Fifteen years later, after the introduction of the Stevens roller mill for grinding the hard spring wheat, she had a popula¬ tion of 129,200 and had sent a million people into Minnesota and Dakota to raise hard wheat.
The miller's difficult problem is best understood by a study of the wheat itself. After it had passed, the primitive millstone his wdts were worked overtime to separate the mass into its several parts. The hopelessness of success was in the mass made by the stones in so crushing the parts together, as to make it beyond the bolting cloth to separate the particles. This is best seen in a study of, the wheat berry. The center is a fine starch. In the crease is located the germ, which is soft and oily. This makes the low grade flour. The outer coat is a hard, horny covering, called the bran. The inner coat is a finer covering called the middlings. Between these two there is a celular coat designed to keep the fruit from freezing. These cells in the winter wheat are dark; but in the spring or Minnesota red or hard wheat they are almost black, and in old process milling pulverized as fine as flour. Next beneath the middling coat is deposited the granular flour that is most highly, prized as whitest and most nutritious, and sells for the highest price. There is more of this granular flour in the hard spring wheat than in the softer winter wheat. The winter wheat was largely raised in Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri, and St. Louis became a center for the milling in winter wheat, as even if particles of the coats and cells became mixed with the flour it
^ In 1879, Mr. Eichard J. Harney stated in ^^History Winnebago County," published in 1880, that there were, seven mills in the city of Neenah in 1879, making 1,425 barrels of flour daily, making  an   annual  output   of  $2,565,000.