Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 88, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 April 1914 — RALPH SPRAGUE TO IMPROVE MILL [ARTICLE]

RALPH SPRAGUE TO IMPROVE MILL

Is Installing Most Modern Flour Making Machinery and Will Have One of Best Plants.

Rensselaer is this year to witness the rejuvenation of its flouring mill, and great 1 good should come to Rensselaer and the surrounding country by reason of this fact. Ralph Sprague, who took charge of the mill several months ago and who -has''conducted it on a money making basis, is now having installed the latest machinery for flour making, and by the middle of July or in time to take care of this year’s wheat crop he will have everything in readiness to do the flour making for the farmers of the county. He is having installed five double stands of roller machinery, the Barnard & Lee make and universally recognized as the best milling machinery manufactured. An 8-sec-tion plan shifter is also being installed, while the old spouting is all to be torn down and Replaced by new of the latest approved type. The interior of the mill is being treated with a preparation recommended by the government for mills and Mr. Sprague states that it will be the cleanest mill that it is possible to construct and that it will be kept clean. It will have a capacity at the outset of 60 or 70 barrels per day and this will be increased as soon as the demand exists. (Mr. Sprague is a practical mill man, having worked at the business all his life. He was on the road for some time installing mill machinery and has managed a number of successful mills. He first came to Rensselaer twenty years ago and installed the machinery in the mill which he now owns. For five years he was in the milling business and milled Turkey Red wheat, the best quality of all around flour wheat and which Is the kind almost exclusively grown in this county. Some eight years ago, James E. Flynn, who works with Mr. Sprague and who at that time was running the River Queen Mill, had a carload of Turkey Red wheat shipped in here for seed purposes and the success of the experiment resulted in a revival in wheat growing. Mr. Flynn was really the pioneer in Turkey Red wheat in this county. Mr. Sprague says that his mill will be one of the best small capacity mills in the state and that with the machinery he is installing he can make just as good flour as can be made in any of the big mills in the northwest. “If I can’t do just what I say,” remarked Mr. Sprague, “I will go out of the milling business.” He indulged in a few figures which should make all see thoroughly that it is of the most important economy to have flour milling done right here in Jasper county. With wheat selling at 85 cents a bushel he can save all bran users in the neighborhood of $3 per ton for feed. This will be an announcement that will be of interest to all feeders of bran. The price of this article now shipped here is S3OIO per ton. He can.cut this price to $27 as soon as he gets to making flour. He says that he can give farmers 38 pounds of flour for every bushel of wheat brought to him and that he will make a special inducement to build up the business among farmers, saying that he will give them more flour and better flour for a bushel of wheat than they ever received before, and that If the flour is not up to the highest standard it can be returned to him. There will, to all appearances, be the finest crop of wheat in Jasper county this year that was ever raised in the county. Not the largest, perhaps, because the acreage is not extensive, but there is a good amount and it wintered in the very best shape. Mr., Sprague will have the mill ready to handle this crop and will be able to pay a higher cash price than farmers have heretofore received. Mr. Sprague took hold of the mill when it was in a deplorable condition and has been successful in running it as a feed grinding mill. He has decided to make the improvements /ifter a thorough study of the proposition and believes that the wheat growers of the county will be deeply interested in his decision to run a flouring mill. The news, that the mill is to be put into first-class condition will be welcomed -both inside and outside of town and Mt. Sprague should have and will doubtless receive the hearty co-operation of the people of this vicinity in his enterprise. . ,

Deliveries made to all parts *of town by the Iroquois Mills. Get yottr ehick feed there.