96 FOOD-GRAINS OF INDIA. 



matter and of oil are rejected when fine flour is the sole 

 product reserved for human food. It must not, however, be 

 assumed that all the nitrogen, say, in fine sharps, is albuminoid ; 

 in fact, these fine sharps did not contain more than 13^ per 

 cent, of albuminoids, though 2*608 of nitrogen corresponds to i6/4 

 per cent.; even the fine "whites" or flour contained a little 

 nitrogen in non-albuminoid forms. 



The methods of employing wheat for human food in India 

 vary somewhat, but the following are used to a considerable 

 extent. The grain having been separated from the chaff, often 

 rather imperfectly, is washed, sun-dried, and then ground between 

 millstones into meal. The finest part or suji, the second 

 grade or maida, and the coarsest or atta, are respectively used 

 as follows : 



Suji and maida are employed chiefly in the making of 

 confectionery, while the atta is made into unleavened bread 

 or biscuits, usually in the form of flat cakes called chapatti 

 or roti. These cakes constitute one of the chief articles of 

 diet in many parts of India, as in Monghyr, Gorakhpur, and 

 Behar ; they are eaten with dal, ghi, etc. They are prepared 

 by kneading the flour with water into a dough, which is pressed 

 into cakes and baked over a fire or on a hot earthen platter. 

 Fried with ghi and sugar they are largely consumed by rich 

 Hindus. A mixture of wheaten and barley flour is employed 

 in some districts for making the chapatti. Fermented bread 

 is, generally speaking, unknown in India, but it is eaten, both 

 by Hindus and Moslems, especially by the rich and middle classes, 

 in the principal towns of Patna and Behar. It should be 

 mentioned here that scorbutic affections do not occur where 

 wheat is a considerable or almost exclusive article of the daily 

 dietary, a fact in marked contrast with the results observed in 

 districts where rice is very largely consumed. 



A careful study and practical examination of the milling 

 qualities of certain typical samples of Indian wheat was made 

 by Messrs. McDougall Brothers, of Mark Lane, in 1882. From 

 their report, addressed to the Secretary of State for India, we 



