98 FOOD-GRAINS OF INDIA. 



or beany flavour, and need skill in mixing the grists. Probably 

 from 25 to 50 per cent, of American wheats having a sweet, milky 

 or nutty flavour would be required. The flours are " ricey," and 

 yield a very large quantity of bread. The bread is too close and 

 the crusts too hard and brittle when flours from unmixed Indian 

 wheats are employed. 



The value of Indian wheats in European markets is often much 

 lowered by preventable impurities. Very frequently they contain 

 other cereal grains, especially barley ; gram and linseed sometimes 

 occur in them, and they are often largely contaminated with sand 

 and earth. Then, also, two or more kinds of wheat are found 

 mixed together hard wheat with soft, and red wheat with white. 



While the soft wheats abundantly produced in Northern India 

 are better adapted for milling purposes, the hard wheats of 

 Southern India will prove particularly appropriate for the manu- 

 facture of macaroni, vermicelli, and pates d'ltalie. This is owing 

 to the very high percentage of gluten which they contain a point 

 in which they resemble the Polish and other European wheats so 

 much prized by the makers of macaroni. 



It appears that hard wheats, both white and red, are preferred 

 for local consumption in India, and formerly commanded the 

 highest prices. Hard white wheat is grown chiefly in the Deccan 

 and Southern Mahratta country ; hard red wheat chiefly in 

 Rajputana, the Central Provinces, and Bombay generally. Soft 

 white wheat is grown to great perfection throughout Northern 

 India, and also in Rajputana and Gujarat. It prefers a rich loam, 

 well manured and irrigated, and a moderately severe winter. The 

 most valuable sort of soft red wheat, under the name of pissi, 

 comes from the Central Provinces, and especially from the 

 Narbada valley. The predominant soil in this tract is a heavy 

 black loam " black cotton soil " which retains moisture through- 

 out the year, and consequently needs no irrigation. 



The straw of wheat is sometimes used in India as fodder, alone 

 or mixed with barley straw and the haulms of pulse. 



