VII. 



WHEAT. 



I. USES AND PREPARATION FOR USE. 



170. Uses. — The use of wheat as a human food is pre 

 historic, but by no means universal, although much more so 

 than formerly. It is only since the application of machinery to 

 wheat harvesting and the simultaneous development of new 

 wheat areas, that the coarser grains have come to take a more 

 secondary place in our dietar}\ The ancient Egyptians lived 

 upon barley, sorghum seed, lupines and horse beans. Esau's 

 mess of pottage was hulled lupines. Our New England fore- 

 fathers ate " rye and Indian " (a mixture of rye and maize 

 meal) and buckwheat principally. Wheat is almost exclusively 

 used for the production of flour from which various forms of 

 food are made, while its by-products ser\^e as food for domestic 

 animals. The value of wheat as human food does not lie so 

 much in its superiority in sustaining life as it does in its greater 

 palatability and the attractiveness and great variety of forms 

 which can be made therefrom. 



171. Food for Domestic Animals. — All classes of domestic 

 animals are fond of wheat, whether fed whole or ground, wet or 

 dr}\ Feeding experiments clearly indicate that the food value 

 of wheat is slightly, if any, greater than maize, pound for pound, 

 when fed to domestic animals. When the price permits its use 

 under these conditions, it is a healthful and desirable food, but 

 the best results are obtained when it does not form more than 

 half the grain ration. When fed whole, large quantities of the 

 grains escape mastication, but grinding has been found to 

 increase slightly its food value. The Minnesota Station found 



