APPENDIX to the CHRONICLE. 



95 



this point. The result of their evi- 

 dence appears to be that, although 

 a change of any sort of food, which 

 forms so great a part of the suste- 

 nance of man, might, for a time, 

 aifect some constitutions, that as 

 soon as persons were habituated to 

 it, the standard wheaten bread, or 

 even bread of a coarser sort, would 

 be equally wholesome with the fine 

 wheaten bread which is now gene- 

 rally used in the metropolis ; but 

 that in their opinion, the fine 

 wheaten bread would go farther 

 with persons who have no other 

 food, than the same quantity of 

 bread of a coarser sort. 



Your committee were next desi- 

 rous of ascertaining;, whether a 

 standard bread was likely to be ac- 

 ceptable to the people of this me- 

 tropolis ; they have examined for 

 this purpose several considerable 

 bakers, who agree in stating, that 

 scarcely any bread is consumed in 

 the metropolis but that which is 

 made from the fine wheaten flour; 

 that attempts have been formerly 

 made in times of scarcity to intro- 

 duce a coarser species of bread into 

 use, but without success ; and that 

 in their opinion, the iiigh price of 

 bread would be considered, by the 

 lower classes of jieople, as a small 

 evil, when compared with any 

 measui'es which would have the ef- 

 fect of cimipelling them to consume 

 abread to which they have not been 

 accustomed. 



Your committee then proceeded 

 to inquire, whether a measure 

 which compelled the millers to ma- 

 nufacture only one sort of flour, 

 would helikely to incrca.se the (luan- 

 tity of sustenance for man. It has* 

 been stated to your comniittee, 

 that, according to the mode of ma- 

 nufactiiring Hf>ur for Lcmdon and its 



neighbourhood, a bushel of wheat, 

 weighing sixty pounds, produced 

 forty-seven pounds of flour, of all 

 descriptions, which were applied 

 in various ways directly to the sus- 

 tenance of man ; that about one 

 pound was the waste in grinding, 

 and the remaining twelve pounds 

 consisted of bran and pollards, which 

 were made use of for feeding poul- 

 try, swine, and cattle. It has, 

 however, been suggested, that if 

 only one sort of flour was permitted 

 to be made, and a different mode 

 of dressing it was adopted, so as to 

 leave in it the finer pollards, fifty- 

 two pounds of flour might be ex- 

 tracted from a bushel of wheat, of 

 the before-mentioned weight, in- 

 stead of forty-seven pounds; that 

 this proportion of the wheat would 

 afford a wholesome and nutritious 

 food, and would add to the quantity, 

 for the sustenance of man, in places 

 where the fine household bread is 

 now used, five pounds on every 

 bushel, or somewhat more than one 

 ninth. But as this saving is com- 

 puted on a finer wheat, and of 

 s;reater weight per bushel than the 

 average of the last crop may pro- 

 duce, and can only apply to those 

 places which have been stated, and 

 as a coarser bread is actually in use 

 in many parts of the country, the 

 saving on the whole consumption 

 would, according to this calcula- 

 tion, be veiy considerably reduced. 

 Your committee have considered 

 how far other circumstances might 

 operate, or the saving likely to be 

 made of flour by adopting this pro- 

 position : they beg leave in the first 

 place to observe, that if the physi- 

 cians are well founded in their opi- 

 nion, that bread of a coarser quality 

 will not go eq^ually far with the fine 

 wheaten bread, an increas-'d con- 



