The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, February 8, 1917, Page 13

a ~ for the first roller. Kitchens That Men - Operate some of the & FOOD made in factories, though operations . are done by machinery, goes through" the Ssame process that you would put it through in your own kitchen. The kitchens, however, are usually run by men and they are on a gigantic scale compared to the kitch- en the ayerage housewife bosses. How would you like to take a peep inside of one of these big factory Kitchens, where crackers are made? 1t may perhaps surprise many of you to know that flour for crackers is ship- red from the more southern states, as the hard northern wheat has too much gluten, which makes crackers hard and somewhat leathery.. Many experi- ments have been made to produce a kind of wheat in the northwest that will make good cracker flour, but they have not proven to be successful S0 far. I recently visited a big manufactur- ing company which has plants at Fargo and Sioux Falls. I found many inter- esting things. In the sponge room are large sponge troughs in which the ‘- sponge rdises from 18 to 21 hours, then the dough is taken to. the kneading -room where it is allowed to raise from three to four hours. All sponges, as they call the dough in the first process, are started with. yeast, the shortening and soda being added in the kneading Toom, the latter to neutralize the car- bonic acid gas and keep the crackers soft and crisp. Then the dough is put ‘on a board and flattened enough to g0 through three large rollers from which it .comes out in the shape of crackers, ready to go into the oven. The sponge is mixed automatically, likewise the kneading and so the dough is not touched by hands until it is put.on > the board just before going to the roll- ers. The temperature must be even to insure good crackers and it varies ac- cording to the kind of crackers being baked. TWO-STORY OVEN = DOES THE BAKING - The oven is especially lnterestmg It is two stories high and built like a'- Ferris wheel, consisting of 12 plates: About 700 crackers are put on each plate and they are baked just enough for the revolution of one plate, it taking only 12 minutes for the com- plete revolution of the oven. Six men are taking the crackers from the cutter to the oven and from the oven to the elevator to be.carried to the packing room, where they are for the second time touched by hands. All the bakers in the sponge and kneading rooms are dressed in white. It takes just 15 minutes for the crackers from the oven to reach the shipping room. By referring to the pictures you can see one of the automatic mixers and the trough in which the dough raises. When it is light enough it is carried to the kneading board, where the baker uses his elbows to press it thin enough Then a long strip of the dough is folded over and over, put into the second roller, with heavy pressure to remove any gas and keep the pores of the dough fine and even. Now the dough is ready for the last roller, when it comes out all cut into crackers ready for the oven. Sixty barrels of flour are used every 24 hours for one baking of crackers, cookies requiring less heat and a longer: time to: bake., PACKED BY HAND; MACHINES WON'T DO Now we left the crackers in the ele- . vator to be taken to the packing room. Every thing is as convenient as the best modern. machinery can make it and the crackers are automatically car- ‘ried to the packers, who pack them by hand, as experience has proven that - too many are broken when machine packed. The paper boxes are lined with waxed paper to keep the crackers moist and prevent the absorption. of odors. One carload of waxed paper is used annually. After the crackers are packed in boxes, they are labeled, put into large cartons and are ready for _the shipping room. Often before the crackers are six hours old, they are speeding on their way to vour homes, for a freight car stands at the very door of the shipping room constantly. ‘We hear so much about the high cost of living these days and we do _know that many of the necessities are way up, but crackers seem to be one of the few things that bave remained normal ‘Why? When we realize that the bakers are on the constant lookout to buy to long ° . places—‘‘padre” ISR e TS —Photos. used by courtesy of Manchester Biscuit company, Fargo and Sioux Falls. Above, rolling and cuttmg machine used in a big cracker and biscuit factory in Fargo. The machine irons out the dough for crackers, then cuts the dough to the proper size for baking. The dough after cutting, is delivered by the ma- . chine into pans which are taken by the bakers to the ovens. Below, one of the machines in which the dough for crackers is kneaded. On the right of the kneading machine are the troughs in which the dough is raised after kneadmg, before being delivered to the machine for rolling and cut- " ting, as shown in the top picture. an advantage in big lots and co-oper- ate with each other, we can understand why this is so. With the best equip- ment it is an easy matter to produce a superior article and where the sani- tary conditions are good, we need not be afraid to patronize factory-made goods. * I am sure all "of the house- keepers would thoroughly enjoy seeing the many interesting ‘things that may be seen where our foods are prepared on a large scale and where we can see with our own eyes how these things are done. With the excellent inspec- tion system and score cards used in North Dakota, no housewife need be afraid to patronize any. factory that scores high. For the Boys and Girls éJust Words ‘Words have stories as'well as battles, kings and queens. Wouldyt you like to know the meaning of your own name? Why are some plants called one name and others a different one? Language began so long ago that we “can not say exactly when. A long long time ago a big family lived in Asia, which grew too large for its home, so they had to look for other homes. They became scattered over parts of India, Russia, southern Europe and Germany, 80 naturally the language changed, English being a part of the German language makes it easy for us to learn the German. We can say that Eng- lish is a brother to &German, a first cousin to Latin and Greek and all the language coming from them—as ¥rench, Italian, Spanish—and a second cousin to Russia and the ancient Sanskrit. All these languages are re- lated to each other and their family name is the Indo-European. It is not surprising to find words in English very similar to those of other languages. For example “father” in English is “vater,” pronounced “fater,” in German and “pater” in Latin and Creek. “p” and “f” can always change in Italian, “pere” in in. French;- both mean ‘“father.” This shows that these all came from the same word in the beginning. Just as we import goods from another country, so we import words too. Our language is constantly chang- ing, new words added, and old ‘ones dropped out. Some of them are merely “sound-words,” imitating the sound we wish to talk about, as *buzs,” ‘“hiss” and so on. Others are -called after names of places, such as “calico” frocm Calicut; “port” wine from Oporto, and often from names of people, as “mes- merism’’ from Dr. Mesmer, a German physician. Words are liable to change their meaning in_the course of time and we will have a little talk on them later. You perhaps have heard people talk about the root of a word. What does that mean? Simply that_just as the root of a plant is that from which the plant grows, so the root of a word is that from which a word grows Let us look at four words, “nation,” ‘“native,” “nature” and "nascent.” We see that two letters “na” form part of each’ of them. These two .letters are really the root of these four words. We can see the importance of roots by tracing back a language to a com- paratively few roots, and from one root perhaps a hundred words will grow, and then we can compare these roots with those of other languages. These in turn can be traced further to fewer Toots still so we can find the words the earliest people used. Many of these will be found to be very few and very simple and’ it is wonderful how out of . these simple root words, so many beau- tiful- words have been found.- We will later tell the story of some of our most" common words. Ammonia added to water helps to keep woolens soft and fleecy. Dash up and down rather than rub on board. Do not vary temperature of water for suds or rinsing, as this causes shrink- .age and hardens woolen goods. To prevent chapped hands when one ‘has to hang clothes out doors, dip them " in cider vinegar ang dry: thoroughly in ‘corn meal. The acidity of the vinegar “kills” the alkalinity of the soap. Rub well with any good oil at night and your hands will scarcely know the “bugbear” of washday. THIRTREN Mr& Alh@ m B Emw E".uiu @d by N Saccharin vs. Sugar The substituticn of saccharin, a coal tar product, for sugar in food products has become widespread and it is important that housewives should understand what saccharin is, com- rared with sugar, and should decide whether or not they want food prod- ucts with this substitution. Sugar furnishes heat and energy at the rate of 1815 calories a pound, and four ounces per person per day would vield 454 calories. IFor great exertion science tells us it is the readiest avail- able source of energy and endurance and will prevent fatigue. So it is ne- .cessary for the mountain climber, «the soldier and athletic. Saccharin, on the other hand, gives nothing except extra laber on the part of the kidneys to excrete it. Too much sugar may cause fermentation in the stomach or intestines, but by itself it will never cause diabetes or kidney trouble, doc- tors say, although saccharin promoters say it will. Saccharin is a drug condiment and not a food. Nearly all drugs which are useful umder abnormal conditions are injurious when not needed. This is a fundamental principle well estab- lished. Sugar has been a staple food since the days of the ancients, who called it ‘‘the honey of the reeds.” In substituting a non-food coal tar prod- uct recently discovered, remember the risk is yours. In a recent case in New York city against the Excelsior Bottling Works, the special sessions justices sustained the ordinanca of the board of health and decided that the prohibition of saccharin in food products was con- _ stitutional. _“The lowering of quality by sub- stituting a material of no food value for one of high value,” is the founda- tion for this decision to prevent im- pPosition and fraud. Note that the point of injuriousness is not present and neither is it denied. It was clev- erly urged that saccharin is used only for its condimental value, therefore the question of food value is not pres- ent. Be it remembered that the na- tural condiments, such as salt and pepper, have also distinct functions in the body, salt to aid digestion, the Depper a -stomachic, whereas the saccharin plays no part in the body economy, Our food law unfortunately is be- - coming only a misbranding and label- Ing act and anything seems to go it it’s but mentioned on the label. Eterna] vigilance on the part of the housewife can not result in utter de- feat when we study the matter from an economic, practical viewpoint. Not only the sodag, ginger ales, canned corn, preServes and candies, but any and all foods calling for sugar could legally contaln this coal tar product, admittedly a valueless food and dan- gerous to health. Debasing quality by substituting non-food material for true foods is one of the most insid- fous forms of food adulteration. Wa hear nothing of the reduction of the cost of food because this cheaper artificial sweetness is used. Read the labels carefully and turn down products uslng saccharin for sugar. = s To straighten napkins, take them by opposite corners, and whirl round and - round. Do the same with the other two corners. This keeps them well shaped. — —