26 J'he Milling of Wheat in the United Kingdom. 



proof to keep in the endosperm, when by natural pi-ocesses it 

 is reduced first to a milky and finally to a watery state, and so 

 resistant to disintegration that it remains in existence under 

 ground for several months after the plant has absorbed the 

 endosperm. Man has quite properly in this, as in so many 

 other cases, diverted a natural product from its use in nature's 

 economy to food purposes, but in doing so he has quite rightly 

 used his intelligence and converts into breadstuff s that part of 

 the original product which he himself, after cooking, can 

 properly assimilate, while he gives that part (which he cannot 

 himself directly utilise to best advantage) to those possessors 

 of strong digestions who are made to furnish him with milk 

 and bacon. The separation of wheat after grinding into its 

 commercial constituents, flour and offals, is no new idea. 

 From the time of Moses downwards, flour to be excellent has 

 been " fine," which means that some sifting medium of fine 

 mesh has been vised to exclude the bran and finer particles of 

 the skin of the wheat, together known by the generic name of 

 " offals," from the flour. Medical science acknowledges that 

 foods to be in the highest degree good must be appetising, and 

 the answer of the public as to which form of bread it prefers, 

 fine or coarse, is overwhelmingly in favour of the former. 

 For a great many years the virtues of bread containing a large 

 proportion of " wheaten offals " have been extolled, and millers 

 have taken the greatest pains by selecting desirable wheats, 

 and by milling them in many ways, to satisfy the demand for 

 it ; yet even now the various forms of wheat meal bread do 

 not represent more than 3 or 4 per cent, of the total bread 

 consumed in the United Kingdom. The Bread and Food 

 Reform League recognised this fact, and varied its teaching 

 to advocate the use of the so-called 80 per cent, standard 

 bread, but in spite of the extraordinary campaign waged in 

 its favour and the extravagant claims made on its behalf, 

 careful inquiries among millers lead me to say that at no 

 time did its consumption represent more than 7 per cent., and 

 at present it does not exceed 3 per cent, of the bread consumed 

 in the United Kingdom. 



The milling of wheat, therefore, has always included not 

 only the work of grinding, but of dividing the meal into 

 various commercial products. If the work required consisted 

 of grinding only, no better tool would be required or desired 

 than the millstone, but the public has demanded fine white 

 flour, and this demand, growing more and more insistent, has 

 led by gradual stages to the development of the complicated 

 systems of modern milling. To get white flour, wheat must be 

 thoroughly cleaned, the quality of the grinding must be good, 

 and the method of separating ground products must be gentle, 



