THE ETHICS OF FOOD 291 



Commercially it is an accepted fact that any advantage gained 

 by a manufacturer of a competitive article as the result of a new 

 process is very soon handed on to the consumer. Competition 

 in industries like milling and baking is far too keen for any 

 other alternative to exist. The use of improvers will render 

 a very much larger quantity of flour available for making bread 

 of the type demanded in this country and the consumer cannot 

 but fail to profit by the practice. 



It has been repeatedly stated in these articles that English 

 wheats are weak in character : in other words, they give flours 

 containing a small proportion of protein and these have a low 

 power of absorbing moisture, partly because they already contain 

 so much, so that when used alone they produce small close 

 loaves ; in consequence, their use is restricted and the price paid 

 for them very low. 



The Home-Grown Wheat Committee has been working 

 during several years past to better this state of things and 

 has striven both to increase the quantity and also the quality 

 of the gluten. Climatic conditions naturally cannot be altered — 

 their effect is seen in a season like that which has just passed, 

 the wheat being materially drier and stronger than it has been 

 during many years past. 



The introduction of other varieties of wheat into cultivation 

 in this country, such as the Red Fife used in Western Canada 

 and America, is attended with economic difficulties on account 

 of the small yield of grain and straw ; though individuals have 

 been successful in growing it, farmers as a whole will not use 

 it, finding the weaker wheats more profitable. Actually the 

 same economic considerations are making themselves felt in 

 Canada and the United States and there is an increasing 

 tendency to grow weaker wheats the world over. 



Incidentally, reference may be made to the work of the 

 Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, where the selection has 

 been made by breeding on scientific lines of a wheat combining 

 the qualities of both strength and good yield suitable for 

 growth in India. Indian wheat as it comes to the English 

 market is characterised as being weak and soft and by its extreme 

 dryness. It appears that wheat of this type is grown as the 

 result of fashion specially for export but that the natives, like 

 ourselves, much prefer to make their bread from a stronger 

 flour and cultivate strong wheats accordingly. Some of these 



