1900-12-20-tacoma-daily-ledger-p9-big-shipment-of-washington-flour
December 20, 1900 Tacoma Daily Ledger Page 9:
BIG SHIPMENT OF WASHINGTON FLOUR
FIVE THOUSAND BARRELS NOW EN ROUTE TO ECUADOR.
Was Manufactured at Reardan and Goes to Feed Laborers Engaged in Constructing a Railroad—Consignment of One Million Feet of Ties Also.
[Special Dispatch to The Ledger.]
SPOKANE, Dec. 19.—Five thousand barrels of flour made in Lincoln county were shipped last week to Ecuador, South America. It left Fairhaven on the steamer Charles P. Lane. The flour was manufactured by the Washington Grain & Milling company, of Reardan, and is said to be the first large shipment of Washington flour sent to South American points.
The flour is made especially for export and is known as the Reardan flour. About half of the consignment is of the highest grade. The Reardan mill of the Washington company has a capacity of 400 barrels a day and is one of the largest steam power mills in Eastern Washing- ton. Its capacity was increased from 150 barrels to its present capacity this year.
The surplus product of the mill, not marketed locally, has been sold in the Orient, but as the company has a contract calling for flour in Ecuador for many months, much of it will be sent there hereafter,
To Feed Railroad Laborers.
The flour shipment Friday will go to feed the 6500 men that James McDonald, of New York, a railway contractor, will start at work preparing the grade for a railway between Guayaquil and Quito, 350 miles. The railway is being built for Scotch and English capitalists and will cost when completed about $25,000,000. Considerable difficulty will ‘be met in putting in the railway, as immense engineering problems will have to be solved.
When completed the road will open new markets to the products of the Pacific slope, particularly to the lumber and food products of Washington. Guayaquil is an old city of great wealth, and is noted as a cocoa center. Coal mines of considerable dimensions are near it. At present the republic of Ecuador is traversed only by pack trails and methods of transportation are the same as were in force when the Spanish first went into the country.
Wheat in Lincoln County.
"The outlook for wheat in Lincoln county is bright," said Mr. Moriarity, manager of the mill company, last night. "About a quarter of the wheat grown down there is winter wheat, the rest being of spring varieties. The winter wheat now in looks especially good, and I believe wheat will be a favored crop in Lincoln county in 1901. The acreage devoted to wheat will surely be increased considerably."
With the flour shipped went 1,000,000 feet of ties for the road. They were all cut in Washington, many of them coming from points along the Great Northern east of the mountains. The total needs of the road will be 25,000,000 feet of lumber, all of which, it is believed, will be shipped from Washington.
