273 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



city baker nearly fifty years ago, propounded the following ques- 

 tions : " Can good, wholesome flour be made of unsound wheat? 

 or, can good, wholesome bread be made of unsound, sour, musty 

 flour?"" 



He stated that some of the flour used in this city during the 

 war, to make army bread, was utterly unfit for human food, and 

 was doubtless the cause of much sickness in the army. Of his 

 own personal exjDerience he spoke in positive terms, that good 

 flour cannot be made of unsound wheat, and no art of the baker 

 is sufficient to make wholesome bread of damaged flour. In this 

 city there is no protection to the citizens from the cheating of dis- 

 honest millers or dealers in flour, nor from the rapacity of bakers, 

 who are disposed to doctor bad flour and make it into bread. 



Dr. J. V. C. Smith said it had long been known to medical men 

 that much sickness arises from eating diseased bread, as well as 

 meat and milk. It is a question of life and death for the people 

 to discuss, that unsound grain and flour is not fit for food. 



Mr. R. J. Dodge. — It is a remarkal)le fact that a New York brand 

 of superfine is enough to condemn a l)arrel of flour as bad, the 

 character of the inspection here has run so low. 



Mr. F. C. Bradshaw. — I was for eighteen years in the flour trade 

 in Boston, and I know from experience how hard it is to detect 

 the tricks of dishonest millers until the flour is baked ; for instance, 

 when beans are ground with grown Avheat. It is a common prac- 

 tice with flour-dealers, when a lot sours upon their hands, to send 

 it to the cracker-baker's. I bought a loaf of bread last summer, 

 which was eaten by my family and made every one sick. 



Dr. Grant. — What is the diflference between good superfine and 

 "extra" flour? 



Mr. F. C. Tread well. — Extra amounts to nothing. If the wheat 

 is good the coarse flour is just as good as extra fine. The latter 

 may be a little the whitest. It used to require five bushels of 

 wheat to make a 1)arrel of good flour ; now millers get a barrel 

 from four bushels. They also mix bad wheat in small quantities 

 with good wheat, and thus render it impossible to detect it ii* the 

 flour, but its deleterious effect is felt in the bread. As to flour of 

 white wheat it may be a trifle whiter ; it is no better than red wheat. 



Mr. John Harold. — As lonsf ago as the age of Chaucer the dis- 

 eases of people were ascribed to eating diseased grain. With good 

 wheat and country mills we always have good wholesome flour, 

 middlings and bran. 



