204 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



and Agricultural Society of Scotland, a vast number of kinds are 

 exhibited and his account enumerates more than eighty different 

 sorts. The common divisions are into bearded or beardless wheats, 

 into thin skinned, or white, and hard or flint wheats, or into white 

 or red wheats. The botanical distinctions would be of little con 

 sequence to my general readers. The white wheats,or thin skin 

 ned, yield the largest proportion of flour or starch ; the flint wheats 

 of gluten, which is the most nutritious part of the wheat. The 

 colors white and red are not permanent distinctions, but are con 

 sidered as attributable to the soil in which these two kinds are 

 grown ; the white wheat sometimes changing into a red, and the 

 red into a white. No advantage would come from my enumerating 

 the various kinds cultivated. Every district has its favorite wheat ; 

 and it is with wheat as with most other popular favorites public 

 opinion is continually changing. The results, too, with respect 

 to the same kind of seed, are different under different cultivation, 

 and are likewise materially affected by the season. Different 

 markets, likewise, have their preferences for different kinds of 

 wheat. The baker wants one kind of flour ; the confectioner 

 requires another. I shall presently specify some of the principal 

 ones cultivated. The analysis of different wheats has shown a 

 remarkable difference in the quantity of gluten in each ; but it 

 probably will be found that this more depends upon the soil and 

 the species of manure applied, than upon any peculiarity in the 

 seed itself.* 



* &quot; A sack of Italian, Sicilian, or Russian (Odessa) flour, when tough in 

 kneading, or, according to the haker, l full of proof J or gluten, takes up, in con 

 sequence, from five to six gallons more water than a similar quantity of British 

 flour, and makes, in consequence, from four to six more quartern loaves. When 

 the wheat, in England, is not well harvested, it is frequently necessary, in order to 

 make a loaf which will stand up in the oven, and sell, to mix with it flours of 

 the above description. Starch is perfectly white, while albumen, the same sub 

 stance as white of egg, is of a grayish color ; and gluten, by exposure to air, 

 becomes brown. The flours called fines and ertrqfmes are made from Dantzic 

 wheats, when to be had. From their whiter color, and their taking up, in the for 

 mation of bread, less water than wheats from the south, they must contain more 

 starch and less gluten and albumen. Our British wheats, used also for fines and 

 extras, in which the former is known to abound, are also whiter ; and, as articles 

 of luxury, it is true that the whiter wheats bear a higher price. But flours from 

 the south, from containing more gluten, are browner, and, seeming to be less well 

 dressed than they are, and to contain more bran than they do, sell at a lower price : 

 still they go farther, and make a more wholesome and nutritious bread. The Intel- 



