can be pulled out like a piece of rubber ; others are soft and break when 



pulled. The wheat which contains the most gluten of a good, tough 



elastic quality, will make the best flour for bread-making. For this 



reason, what are known as Spring Wheats are usually better than those 



known as Fall Wheats. To illustrate this point, flour was made from 



three kinds of wheat — Michigan Amber, one of our best winter varieties ; 



Wild Goose, a very hard Spring variety ; and Manitoba, No. I, hard. 



These flours were made into bread and a loaf of each lot was photo- 

 graphed. The same 

 weight of flour was 

 used for each loaf. 

 Fig. 27 shows the 

 difference in size of 

 the loaves. Mani- 

 toba flour made the 

 largest loaf, because 

 it contained more 

 and better gluten 

 than the others. 

 Millers call a flour 

 which contains good 

 gluten, " strong," 

 and one that con- 

 tains poor gluten, 

 " weak." 



Now that we have 

 learned something 

 about flour, let us 



see if we can learn something about the changes that take place when it 



is made into bread. If you have ever tried to wet flour with water, you 



will have noticed how hard it is to get the flour 



all wet. That is because the flour is so very fine. 



One of the main objects of making the flour into 



bread before it is eaten is to separate these fine 



particles, so that the digestive fluids ot the 



stomach may more easily mix with them. The 



baker commences by mixing the flour with water. 



He also puts in yeast, or something which will 



produce the same effects, and mixes it all together 



so thoroughly that the water and yeast come into 



contact with each little particle of flour. When 



the paste, or dough, containing yeast, is set in 



a warm place, the yeast begins to "work," as we 



say, and the dough to "rise." The yeast causes 



changes, one of the principal results of which 



is the production of a gas. This gas, in trying 



to force its way through the dough, comes into 



contact with the tough elastic gluten which spreads out and holds the gas 



in so as to form little bubbles, and thus causes the dough to rise. In 



Fig-. 28 —Loaf of bread made from normal flour from which part of the 

 gluten had been removed. Note the big cracks up through the loaf, from 

 which the gases escaped without causing the dough to rise. 



Fij^ 



•29. — Lnaf ot lirt'iil made 

 from normal flour. 



