666 



Reading-Course for Farmers' Wives. 



Cereals. 



Cereal.s occupy first rank as human food, though they lack fat. We 

 have learned this and combine butter with bread, cream on breakfast 

 cereals, etc. 



The following table gives the percentage composition of some of our 

 important cereal foods: 



In comparing the composition of these three most important cereal 

 grains in the forms they are most commonly used there are points of 

 comparison that are at first misleading, for example, the graham, entire 

 wheat (so-called) and fine wheat flour or patent flour. We must not alone 

 consider the chemical analysis, but the digestibility of bread made from 

 these three flours. Both the Maine and Minnesota Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Stations have been working on this problem. The results have been 

 in favor of the patent flour. Though the other two show a higher pro- 

 tein content, the protein is not so completely digested, owing to the 

 coarser particles. To choose intelligently we must understand something 

 of the nature of the flours. So far as nutritive value alone is considered 

 we should say that the fine ground flours stand first. The coarser flours 

 have a tendency to increase peristaltic action, and are on this account 

 especially valuable for some persons. 



Graham Flour. 



Graham flour is the whole grain, ground after cleaning, loo pounds 

 of wheat yielding nearly loo pounds of flour. Our graham is often made 

 from inferior wheat and so is really lower in food value than the so-called 

 patent flour. The grinding is carelessly done, and sometimes the quality 

 of graham would lead one to suspect it is a mixture of poor grade flour 

 and bran. 



Whole Jt'hcaf, or Entire Jflieaf flour. 



"\\'hole wheat flour is theoretically the kernel, ground after the husk 

 has been removed. Some firms assert that this husk is removed before 

 the grain is reduced to flt)ur. Microscopic study of die bran and flour 

 shows this is not so; bran is found in the flour — even the outer layer 

 with the beard. Again, the bean contains portions of the layers said to be 



