FOODS — HUMAN NUTETTTON. 465 



Plantain meal in Dominican Republic, P. E. Holland {Daily Cons, and 

 Trade Rpts. [U. S.], 13 (1910), No. 1J,7, p. 1153).— A brief description is given 

 of the manufacture and uses of plantain flour or meal together with data 

 regarding the cost of manufactui'e. 



Milling and baking tests, C. E. Saunders (Canada Expt. Farms Rpts. 

 1910, pp. 167-170). — Brief notes are recorded regarding tests carried on in con- 

 tinuation of earlier work (E. S. R., 22, p. 367). 



From a comparison of new and standard varieties of spring wheat of the 

 crop of 1909 it appears that several of the new cross-bred varieties produced 

 stronger flour than any of the sampl'^s of Red Fife tested and that in several 

 cases the color of the bread from cross-bred wheats is " remarkably good." 

 " The propagation of these phenomenally promising wheats will be pushed as 

 rapidly as possible. Most of them ripen very much earlier than Red Fife and 

 give a good yield of hard, red kernels." Kubauka, the only durum wheat 

 tested, showed a very high baking stiength. 



A study of the elfects of storage on wheat and flours confirmed the results of 

 earlier work as to its beneficial effect upon the color of fiour and the baking 

 strength, whether the material is kept as flour or as wheat. Under proper 

 storage the author considers that both wheat and flour continue to improve for 

 considerably more than a year. 



Additional work also confirmed the conclusion that wheat may be subjected 

 to a very considerable amount of dampness without causing the resulting flour 

 to lose its baking strength, indeed sometimes a gain in strength was noted. 

 " Some light was thrown on the cause of this gain by the discovery that the 

 addition of a very small amoxmt of malt flour to the flour made from the original 

 sample of wheat (which had not been rendered damp) produced bread almost 

 identical with that made from the damp wheat without the addition of malt. 

 The addition of malt flour to the samples of flour made from the damp wheat 

 produced little or no effect." 



As regards the effect of fertilizers on flour strength, " no striking influence 

 was observed from any form of fertilizer and . . , exhausted soil produced flour 

 of unimpaired baking strength." 



The artificial bleaching of flour was also studied. " In some instances, the 

 bleached flours appeared to be very slightly stronger for bread making than the 

 unbleached, and in others they appeared to be very slightly weaker, but the 

 differences observed were all extremely slight and probably within the limits of 

 unavoidable experimental error. Certainly the artificial bleaching, while giving 

 to the flour a paler tint somewhat like that which is produced by natural bleach- 

 ing, does not impart the increased strength which flour almost always obtains 

 from prolonged storage under good conditions. On the other hand, it is equally 

 clear that artificial bleaching properly carried out, as in the samples examined, 

 does not appreciably injure the bread-making strength of the flour. Bleaching 

 had no effect, so far as could be observed, on the flavor of the bread." 



Bleached flour, F. T. Shutt (Canada Expt. Farms Rpts. 1010, pp. 196- 

 203). — Flours bleached imder the auspices of a station oflicial were studied in 

 comparison with unbleached flours. According to the author, in every instance 

 the bleached flour was lighter in color and drier, the average difference in 

 moisture content between bleached and unbleached flours being 0.66 per cent. 

 The bleaching process was not found to affect the ash content or the fat con- 

 tent appreciably. " It was observed, however, that the extracted fat of the 

 bleached flour was invariably paler than that of the corresponding untreated 

 flour." 



The analytical data did not show that bleaching had any influence on the 

 nitrogen. "Throughout the series the results of each pair (bleached and 



