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If a piece of dough is kaeedeJ in water the starch will wash out 

 and leave in the hand an elastic, sticky, grey or yellowish substance 

 called crude gluten! As nitrogen is not found in starch but in the 

 other constituents of the wheat berry, these are called the nitrogenous 

 parts, and as the cheraical composition is similar to animal albumen 

 they are called the albuminoids — sometimes divided into soluble 

 and insoluble albuminoids — under which latter name gluten (lieing a 

 compound substance) is often designated. Some say that gluten is 

 found throughout the wheat berry in sacs along with the starch granules. 

 It was formerly supposed to be in one layer of cells next the bran and 

 as it was thought impossible to remove the bran without taking some 

 of this Inyer with it, the conclusion was jumped at that the best portion 

 of the wheat was thus lost, and some people under this delusion still 

 habitually or periodically rasp their digestive surfaces with indigestible 

 bi'anny foods. 



It is on the quantity and quality of the gluten that the goodness 

 of the wheat and consequently the quality of the flour depends, and as 

 the percentage of gluten varies from about four (4) in poor wheats, to 

 about thirty (30) in good hard wheats, there is ample I'oom for the 

 almost innumerable grades of flour. 



Wheat with a small percentage of gluten is termed "soft" wheat, 

 and wheat with a large percentage of elastic gluten is termed "hard" 

 wheat. 



Some varieties of wheat, notably red winter varieties, contain a 

 large percentage of inferior gluten which millers and bakers term 

 "short" in contradistinction to '"long" gluten which is more elastic 

 and which is characteristic of our Canadian fyfe wheat. 



Wheat is sometimes injured in the harvest held by continuous wet 

 weather. Heat and moisture. start the ferment in the bran, the gluten 

 begins to dissolve and the germ to sprout, and when the flour is made 

 into dough, the chemical action continues, and the baker says the flour 

 runs, the result being dark, heavy bread, caused by the gluten being too 

 weak to retain the gas generated by the yeast or leaven. 



Bakers counteract this chemical action with lime-water or alum, 

 but as our climate is comparatively a dry one alum is seldom used in 

 this country. 



