The MiUing of Wheat in the United Kingdom. 27 



so that the finished flour shall contain no dirt, and only a 

 minimum amount of powdered bran. This means that in 

 grinding and separating no greater amount of friction shall be 

 employed than is really necessary, and that no product shall 

 receive more grinding than is just sufficient for the purposes in 

 view. It means also that the wheat to be ground shall be in 

 such a physical condition — neither too wet nor too dry — that 

 optimum separations of branny husk from kernel can be made 

 with the tools available. Those are the principles involved. 

 Let me dilate somewhat as to the application of them. 



Fifty years ago the kinds of wheat available were almost 

 all mellow. Approximately two-thirds of the quantity ground 

 were home-grown, and the foreign wheats imported were 

 mostly mellow also. This means that the bran was relatively 

 tough, so that methods of milling involving a severe treatment 

 of the grain did not very greatly damage the colour of the 

 flour. Bat the sources of our wheat supply and the nature of 

 the wheats available have been very greatly changed. Argen- 

 tina, Canada, India, Russia, and the North-Western States of 

 the United States have become the chief sources of our supply, 

 and the wheats they send us have a friable skin, so that it 

 became necessary to use less friction in grinding and separa- 

 ting. 



The necessity for improved wheat cleaning became urgent. 

 Pioneer farming in new countries, and the introduction of 

 agricultural machinery everywhere, meant less care in the 

 cleaning of the land and its produce. Furthermore, the bread- 

 making qualities of the wheats available changed. The bread 

 produced from them is not so pleasant to taste as that 

 from the mellower wdieats they replaced, and the presence of 

 powdered husk, which is neither nice nor nourishing, would 

 intensify the defect. So for several reasons some modifications 

 of milling methods became necessary, even if millers attempted 

 to do no more than maintain pre-existent standards of excel- 

 lence as regards colour of flour, and colour and flavour of 

 bread. The necessity for improvements was more urgent in 

 countries using the newer types of wheat exclusively, and that 

 is the reason why Hungary and the United States were the first 

 to adopt the newer methods of milling. But those methods did 

 much more than enable millers to maintain pre-existing stan- 

 dards of excellence. The extraction of dirt, stones, seeds, and 

 other extraneous matter, the washing and conditioning of the 

 wheat, and the diminution in the amount and intensity of fric- 

 tion used ill grinding, impj-oved the colour of the flour very 

 gi'eatly, and the bread produced from it was not only whiter 

 but nicei-. Not infrequently it is said that modern bread is not 

 so nice as that <)btaina))le fifty years ago, and modern methods 



