In the following States most of the flour is milled: Minnesota, New York, Kansas, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Indiana, Michigan, Texas, Wisconsin, Tennessee, California, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Washington.
There are an appreciable number of mills along our Atlantic coast and on the Great Lakes, due to special facilities of transportation.
The foregoing would indicate that the need for millers is very urgent. Formerly a high-school boy was perfectly willing to begin his milling career as an apprentice, but the low salary or wages paid to an apprentice is no longer attracting this class of young men. Now, however, that the Government is showing a disposition to finance the returning soldier through college or through the period of apprenticeship, the milling trade should prove very attractive. The need for millers is becoming more urgent every day, and a trained miller will have no difficulty in finding a good position.
PLAN No. 1247. BAKING
This monograph was prepared by J. A. LeClerc, chemist in charge of the laboratory of plant chemistry, Bureau of Chemistry, Department of Agriculture. Acknowledgment is due B. R. Jacobs and E. E. Smith, of the Bureau of Chemistry, and Prof. C. H. Bailey, of the University of Minnesota for assistance in the preparation of this monograph.
What is Baking?
Baking is one of the most ancient, widespread, useful, and highly honored occupations. All classes and grades of bakeries are to be found even to-day from the most primitive, such as those among the Indians of this country and of South America, and those among the native tribes of Africa and other undeveloped countries, up to the most highly developed modern bakery, examples of which are to be found in most of our large cities, in which almost every step in the operation is by machinery, the hands of man scarcely touching the product at any stage. In every large city of the country are to be found bakers who employ a large number of men to carry on the various occupations connected with the industry. Every small town has at least one baker, but a small baker generally carries on, himself, each and every occupation connected with the shop.
What Does the Baker Do?
A baker’s business is to make bread by first making a dough with flour, water, salt, and yeast (with or without sugar, malt extract, milk, lard, etc.), allowing this dough to ferment, and then placing this fermented dough in an oven to bake it into bread. In general the following amounts of ingredients are used per barrel of flour: Flour 196 pounds, water 118 pounds, salt 8 pounds, sugar 6 pounds, yeast 2 pounds. Besides these essential ingredients some bakers add 2 to 3 pounds malt extract, 2 to 4 pounds milk or milk products and 3 to 4 pounds of lard or other shortening. A barrel of flour made into dough containing most of these ingredients will make about 282 to 290 one-pound loaves of bread when baked. Baking is quite a diversified business. There are many kinds of bakers or, rather it might be said, that bakers make many different kinds of products, e. g., bread, pies, cakes, crackers, etc. The term “baker,” as generally used, however, refers to bread bakers.