I08 MAINE AGRICULTURAI< EXPERIMENT STATION. I903. 



The Northwestern Milhng Company has adopted a standard 

 flour as an ideal toward which it works. In appearance of the 

 flour, viscosity and color of the dough, and color of the resulting 

 bread, the standard is taken as unity. The standard carries 

 38.75 per cent of wet gluten. In the narrow pans in which the 

 bread is baked, 12 ounces of flour should produce a loaf weigh- 

 ing 18.25 ounces and measuring in its greatest circumference 

 29.25 inches, and over the center of the loaf at right angles to 

 this, 26.25 inches. 



The standard flour is of a degree of fineness which has been 

 found by experience to produce the best loaf. It is not granular, 

 nor is it impalpable. The standard is thoroughly uniform in 

 appearance. Its degree of fineness is so definite, and the sense 

 of touch of the expert so delicate that he is at once able to prop- 

 erly class a flour. "Soft" means ground too fine for bread pur- 

 poses. Sample 6414, while too granular, was ''nearest Minne- 

 apolis first patent in granulation." Sample 6415 was reported 

 as "mixed." This means that the flour from the different breaks 

 was not of uniform fineness, so that the resultant flour from the 

 breaks was of uneven fineness. 



When the standard flour is wet up so as to make a dough, it 

 has a definite viscosity. If a dough has not as great resistance 

 to the touch as the standard it is "soft." If it has less tenacity 

 than the standard, it is "short." A soft or short dough will also 

 have less elasticity than the standard. Sample No. 6414 was 

 nearer to the standard Minneapolis patent than any of the other 

 flours in viscosity and color of the dough. 



The scale used in marking the color of the dough is as follows : 

 I x w indicates dead white rather than the creamy white of the 

 Minneapolis Standard patent. 1 w means that the dough is 

 white but not such a dead white as 1 x w. 



In the color of the bread, 1- means that the bread is just a 

 little off color for a patent, while i . 5 means that it has the color 

 of a straight grade and not that of a patent flour. 



The wet or moist gluten is determined by taking a definite 

 weight of flour, wetting it to a dough and with the necessary 

 precautions washing out the starch and soluble constituents by 

 kneading and working the materials under a stream of water. 

 Crude as this separation is, in the hands of an expert it gives 

 results which, when made by the same person, are closely com- 



