APPENDIX B 



547 



endosperm, which forms 85 per cent, of the grain, is broken down in 

 the process of milling into fine flour, semolina, and other products. Its 

 analysis shows that, while about three-quarters of it consists of starch, 

 there still remains in it about 10 per cent, of proteid, which, as " gluten," 

 forms the basis of the dough of bread when moistened with water. 



The purpose of milling of grain was in the first instance simply to 

 grind it into small parts. The bread of primitive Man was doubtless 

 " wholemeal " bread. But even in the old stone-grinding the products 

 were usually graded roughly as bran, pollard, sharps, middlings, and 

 fine flour. Sometimes the coarser products were reground, and the 

 fine flour again extracted from them ; but mostly they were regarded 

 as " offals," and were fed to stock in various forms. More recently 

 in the process of roller-milling the grain is comminuted more accurately 

 by successive stages, being passed through rollers with successively 

 finer ridges. The products of these successive " breaks " are sifted 

 partly by screens, partly by air-blasts, so arranged that their various 

 grading can be very perfectly carried out. The end-product of greatest 

 importance is the flour. The finer this flour is graded the less per- 

 centage of it will be yielded from the milled grain, but the whiter will be 

 the bread. In pre-war days about 70 per cent, of the whole grain was 

 yielded as the finest flour. Already before the war a reaction on grounds 

 of nutrition had led to a preference for " standard flour," which was 

 defined as " 80 per cent, of the grain, with all the germ and semolina." 

 It gave a well-flavoured, nutritious bread, but not of extreme whiteness. 

 Since the war stricter economy has made it necessary to extract even 

 a higher percentage of flour from the grain. The Scientific Commission 

 of the Allied Countries has recommended a uniform milling extraction 

 of 85 per cent, for wheat. This necessarily gives a lower grade, but 

 no objection is possible on grounds of nutrition. 



A comparison of the analyses of average samples of the grains in 

 common use by Man gives a basis for estimating their relative values 

 as foods. The average of a large number of different samples of each 

 is given in the subjoined table : 



TABLE OF ANALYSES OF CEREAL GRAINS. 



