The Composition and Food Value of Bread. 9 



flour are sifted awuj' from the coarser particles of husk or bran. 

 The sifting is lirought about by shaking or blowing the mix- 

 ture against finely woven eilk, which allows the flour to pass 

 through but holds back the bran. The reductions are alter- 

 nated between the several breaks, and for each succeeding 

 one the rollers are set closer, and the pulverisation becomes 

 successively finer and finer. As for the mixture from the 

 earlier reductions, the grinding which it has imdergone is 

 comparatively slight, and silk of comparatively coarse mesh, 

 about 90 to 100 meshes to the inch, sufiices for the separation 

 of the flour from the bran. The flour thus separated is what 

 is known as high grade or patents. It has undergone com- 

 paratively little grinding, the flour proper only has been 

 powdered, the bran is still almost intact, and the two can be 

 separated very completely. Such flour is therefore almost free 

 from branny particles, and its colour is the purest white of all 

 the products produced in the mill. It is on account of this 

 whiteness that it is commercially known as high grade, and 

 sold at a high price. The husk at this stage retains much of 

 the kernel still attached to it. This is removed more and more 

 by each successive break, and is powderetl by each successive 

 reduction. Each treatment tears some of the husk, and the 

 torn fragments get powdei'ed in the reductions, so that they 

 cannot be sifted away from the husk. The flour from the 

 later reductions therefore contains an increasing proportion of 

 finely divided branny particles, which detract from its white- 

 ness, and consequently from its price. It is a common practice 

 to mix the flour from all the later reductions, except, perhaps, 

 the last, and to sell the mixture under the name of households. 

 The flours from the earlier breaks are commonly added to this 

 mixture. Sometimes the whole of the flour, except that from 

 the last reduction and the last break, is mixed together, in 

 which case it is called straight grade or straight run flour. 

 The flours from the last break and from the last reduction, and 

 the particles of husk sifted out at the various stages of the 

 milling process, form the various prodiicts— bran, sharps, 

 pollards — which are known as wheat offals. 



The germ is commonly separated almost completely from 

 the flour in a roller mill. Being of a soft and sticky nature it 

 is not powdered in passing between the reduction rollers, but 

 is pressed out into little flat pellets. These are too large to 

 pass through the meshes of the silk used for sifting, and are 

 conseijuently separated from the flour. They are rather damp 

 and heavy conijjared with the husk, from which they can 

 consequently be separated by an aii- current. The germ thiis 

 separated is collected and sold to the manufacturers of certain 

 fancy gei-m breads. The reason assigned by the millers for 



