194 Inslruciion on the making of Bread 



stinguish flour of good quality, and are of such consequence in 



the making of bread. 



Drying of Grain. 



The drying of wet grain is the only means of arresting the 

 progress of its destruction. 



The most simple mode for this purpose, and that which can 

 be most generally adopted, is to dry the grain in a baking-oven, 

 which is to be met with in most country places. 



The grain may be put into the oven immediately after the 

 bread has been withdrawn ; the temperature is then at such a 

 degree that a person may introduce his naked arm without being 

 much incommoded by the heat*. After the grain has been 

 thrown into the oven, it should be spread into a bed of from 

 eight to ten centimetres (from three to four inches) in thickness, 

 iind stirred frequently with a shovel or rake, in order to facili- 

 tate the disengagement of the vapour. At the end of ten or 

 fifteen minutes, according to the state of humidity in which the 

 grain is, it n)ay be withdrawn from the oven : it will then be 

 sufficiently dried ; and when exposed to the air until perfectly 

 cooled, will have acquired all the qualities necessary to render 

 it fit both for the miller and the baker. 



Ovens which are surmounted by a platform offer a very easy 

 means of drying with more or less rapidity, according to the de- 

 gree of temperature which it may be thought proper to give the 

 platform. 



Another very simple means which the Commission have em- 

 ployed, consists in drying the grain in a flat iron or copper caul- 

 dron. The dimensions of that employed were four feet in 

 width, ten feet in length, and four inches in depth. At one of 

 its extremities a stove was placed, of such a construction that 

 either wood or pitcoal or turf might be burned in it ; and from 

 this stove the smoke was circulated under the cauldron by means 

 of flues, which being made of brick served besides to support the 

 cauldron itself. In adopting this method of drying, the bed of 

 grain ought not to be more than one inch thick, and should be 

 stirred from time to time with a rake. The temperature should 

 be at least from 90 to 100 centigrades; perhaps it may even 

 without inconvenience be raised as high as 130. The place in 

 which the operation is carried on should be ventilated from 

 time to time. One man may with an apparatus of this descrip- 

 tion dry more than twelve bushels of corn in an hour, reckoning 



* In some of the experiments of the Commission the grain has been in- 

 troduced into the ovon when heated even to IPO degrees centiE;r. (160 

 decrees Reftumur). It has been then well dried iu live minutes, and 

 without suffering any injury. 



that 



