38 KANSAS UNIVERSITY QUARTERLY. 
Fig. 3 represents a sample of a ‘‘pure buckwheat” of the ‘‘in- 
stantaneous rising’? kind. Two masses of buckwheat starch are 
shown, and with them a somewhat larger amount of another starch 
very much like the kind seen in shorts. The proportion between 
the buckwheat and the other starch in this flour is fairly well rep- 
resented by this figure, and no more than half of the sample ex- 
amined was buckwheat. 
Figs. 4, 5 and 6 are of samples, each from a different mill, and 
all were adulterated. The proportion of buckwheat in each was 
two-thirds or more; so that the photomicrographs give, in some 
cases, too great, in others, too little buckwheat in proportion. 
The samples from Michigan, New York and Tennessee were 
pure, or practically pure; and, since they were essentially like the 
sample represented by Fig. r, no illustrations of them are given. 
In the Michigan sample a few grarms of wheat starch were found, 
but so few that itis not likely that they were intentionally added. 
The adulterated samples all came from mills in Douglas and Leav- 
enworth counties. In three of them there was, as stated above, 
one-third or less of the adulterant; in one the flour added formed 
nearly one-half of the mixture. 
In every case a second sample taken from a different part of the 
package purchased was examined, and the results of the first exam- 
ination were confirmed. The adulterant in these samples closely 
resembles wheat starch. Certain grades of shorts are said to be 
often used to adulterate buckwheat, and this is possibly the source 
of the starch in this adulterant. Kaffir corn flour is also said to 
be used in some parts of this state as an adulterant of buckwheat; 
neither this, nor, besides wheat, any other flour likely to be used 
for mixing with buckwheat was found in these samples, though a 
comparison with various starches was made. So the evidence is 
good that wheat starch of some grade was the adulterant used 
here. 
It is doubtless true that buckwheat flour is made more whole- 
some and palatable by the addition of a certain proportion of some 
other flour; but it would seem fairer to the purchaser to let him 
know how much other flour is mixed in, rather than to label the 
package ‘‘Pure Buckwheat,’”’ or otherwise represent it as such. 
Some, perhaps, might not like so large a quantity of wheat flour 
in their buckwheat as that found in the sample represented in Fig. 
3; and all, probably, would prefer that the price of the article di- 
minish as the proportion of cheaper flour increases. 
