120 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



tancc. It is useless to attempt its production with imperfect 

 or bad materials. The flour or meal must be sweet and from 

 fully matured grain. During the past two years the market 

 has been crowded with flour of a damaged character. The 

 severe rains and long-continued moist weather at the South and 

 West, were unfavorable for securing the grain crops, and much 

 of it germinated in the fields and barns and was thereby rendered 

 unfit for bread making. In the germinating process, diastase is 

 formed ; this reacting upon the starch of the flour in the baking, 

 transforms it into dextrine and sugar, and prevents the forma- 

 tion of light, spongy bread. Flour from such grain will afford 

 only sticky, glutinous, heavy bread, no matter how much care 

 and skill is bestowed in the making. Fungous growths also 

 appear in wheat injured by moisture, and the flour becomes 

 " musty." In bread from such materials, beside its repulsive 

 physical appearance and unpleasant taste, a chemical change has 

 occurred which renders it positively injurious as an article of 

 diet. The nutritive properties, the gluten, especially, has under- 

 gone decomposition and new bodies have been formed, which are 

 not of an alimentary nature. Impaired digestion, derangements 

 of the bowels follow the use of bread from such flour. The . 

 poor, who are unable to pay large prices for choice, selected 

 brands, suffer greatly from this source, and much of the bread 

 they arc compelled to cat is well calculated to weaken rather 

 than sustain the vital functions. 



During the most favorable seasons thousands of bushels of 

 wheat are made into flour, which, owing to local causes, delay 

 in harvesting, or storage in large bodies, is rendered entirely 

 unfit to be used as food. A portion of this is employed in the 

 arts, but the great bulk goes into families, and feeble children, 

 as well as adults, are forced to consume it, much to their injury. 

 It is doubtful if anything can be done to abate this evil ; the 

 cupidity of men is but little affected by considerations of right, 

 and the thirst for gain is potent and irresistible. 



There are several methods of testing wheat flour, which are 

 available to purchasers, although none of them afford positive 

 indications. Good flour is not sensibly sweet to the taste, but 

 bad flour often is. This is owing to the presence of glucose, 

 resulting from chemical changes in the grain, by partial malting. 

 Extreme whiteness is a good indication, as changed grain is 



