12 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 



In all this simple process the one point at which bacteria might have 

 a chance to play a role is in the first drying, cellaring, and subsequent 

 slow drying in the shade. The theory that the water is responsible 

 for the flavor must rest, it seems to the writer, on other than bac- 

 terial grounds, for from the appearance of the tank which supplied 

 the hot water the inference is easy that the water is chalybeate, for 

 the tank was incrusted with lime. 



If, aside from the superiority of the macaroni of Gragnano, which is 

 made from Taganrog wheat, a specially fine flavor is produced by the 

 use of Saragolla grain, the growers of durum wheats in America 

 deserve to have their attention called to this variety and be given an 

 opportunity to test it on a reasonably large scale. The thin-skinned 

 nature of the sort and its consequent greater semola-producing prop- 

 erties may not be maintained in all places in America, but regions may 

 be found where these valuable qualities as well as the flavor are 

 retained, and the wheat may prove, as it evidently does in Apulia, a 

 profitable crop. 



Naples, NovenJjer 9, 190°2. 



