HOWARD AND HOWARD. 43 
= CoLmour. 
The change, now almost complete in Great: Britain, from the 
old system of grinding wheat under mill-stones to that of the modern 
roller mill has led to quite different views on the part of millers as 
to the importance of the colour of the grain. Under mill-stones 
more of the skin of the grain found its way into the flour and conse- 
quently red wheats did not yield flour of such good colour as white 
wheats.’ With roller mills, however, the separation of the skin is 
almost complete and the disadvantages of red wheats no longer 
exist to any appreciable extent. That this is so is evident 
when it is remembered that Canadian Fife wheat which is one of 
the strongest wheats exported to England is a hard red wheat 
but realises prices about the highest in the market. 
While it is not possible to judge the milling value of a wheat 
from the colour, yet it is safe to state that, as a rule, the hard 
wheats with a somewhat dark tint have the highest nitrogen con- 
tent and give the best results in the bakehouse. Very light red 
and white wheats often give weak flours. 
3. COMPOSITION. 
Although a great deal of work has been done on the chemical 
composition of wheat and of wheat flour, yet no accurate relation has 
hitherto been found between the chemical composition and the 
breadmaking value of wheat. The only determination of any value 
is the nitrogen content which is usually determined by Kjeldahl’s 
method and which, when multiplied by the factor 5-7, gives the per- 
centage of proteids. Hall’ found that as a rule the higher the 
nitrogen content the stronger the flour, but there are exceptions 
as some wheats high in nitrogen give very weak flours. 
The range in total nitrogen and proteid content in wheat is 
very great. Thus Soule and Vanatter® in America give 8:1 & 13°6 
as the limits of the proteid percentage in the American wheats 
1 Maurizio, @etreide. Mehl und Brot, Berlin, 1903, p. 112. 
2 Hall, A. D., Journal of the Board of Agriculture (England), Vol. X1. No. 6. 
3 Soule and Vanatter, Bull, JV, Agr. Expt. Sta. Tennessee, 1903. 
