STARCH AND GLUCOSE MANUFACTURE.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1973, 21 June 1880, Page 3

STARCH AND GLUCOSE MANUFACTURE.

TO THB BDITOB OF THE PBESS. Srß,—The making of starch haa been carried on in England and other placea for at least 150 years. No knowledge of chemißtry is required to make it a success. Neither doeß it require skilled labour, care only being requisite. Starch can be prepared from a great variety of plants, trees, cereals, roots and tubers. Wheat, rice, Indian corn, and potatoes are the common sources for manufacturing purposes. Now that wheat, oats, and potatoes are so cheap and plentiful it would not fail in being a successful industry in Christchurch, the elements of success being cheap raw material, and a good supply of good water. A bushel of wheat weighs 601bs, two-thirds of .which, viz., 401bs, being pure starch. The remaining third being gluten, &c, is a capital food for pigs and cattle. Starch is imported here from England and America in large quantities, which is the reverse of what it ought to be- A veßael of 600 tons could take a more valuable cargo than one of 900 tona of wheat, besides starch is not ao liable to spoil with salt water as grain. A company might be formed in Christchurch to work the above very economically. It would require a building sufficiently large to hold Bay forty vats, each of 1000 gallons capacity, in which the crushed grain might he subjected to any of the usual processes. Bteam power could easily be applied to Beparate by stirring the fecula from the bran. A suitable room for drying it would have to be built. At one stage of the operation the semi-fluid mass might bo at once converted into glucose, which I think would sell readily to jam and syrup makers and confectioners, and so to a certain extent stop the importation of the ao-called Dutch crushed loaf. To the frugal housewife I say, make your own corn flour, which you can easily do at a little more than Id per lb. Yours, &c, GLUTEN.