AMERICAN WHEAT AND CORN. 61 



Whether the Indian wheats were average samples of the product of that country, 

 or a little better through the unconscious partiality of the secretary, may be ques- 

 tionable. They make a good showing for quantity of product, but the quality of the 

 .soft wheats is quite inferior to that of samples from this country. In the United 

 States, California appears t^ take the lead in quantity of bread, while the spring 

 wheats of the Northwest not only surpass other American samples in quality, but are 

 unequaled in that respect by any wheats included in this experiment, the Russian 

 only excepted, which excel in gluten. 



The following statement relative to the effect of dryuess of the grain upon the yield 

 of bread is extracted from this report: 



"It is generally believed that upon the percentage of gluten in flour depends the 

 yield of bread that may be obtained from it, as illustrated by the Hungarian flours, 

 which are almost unequaled for yield of bread, and rank high in gluten ; but this 

 is erroneous, as proved by the experimental workings now under review. It would 

 be found that the flours high in gluten do not produce the most bread, unless, at the 

 same time, they possess a high degree of dryness, for it is upon the dryness of the flour 

 that the yield of bread mainly depends, and not upon the gluten. The two lots of 

 flour from Russian wheats (Nos. 11 and 12) are those which are highest in gluten, yet 

 they do not yield as much bread as any of the four Indian wheats (Nos. 1 to 4), and 

 the difference in yield from the latter would have been still further increased had 

 they not been previously mellowed with water, as noted, before milling; continuing 

 that it is the dryuess of a flour that determines the yield of bread." 



There being considerable doubt as to whether the samples of Amer- 

 ican wheats in the preceding experiments were representative, a series 

 of baking experiments with flours of various grades from different 

 parts of this country have been carried on in our laboratory with the 

 results which are presented. 



The McDougall Brothers found, and it has been confirmed by us, 

 that upon the dryuess of a flour, or upon the amount of water which it 

 is possible to add to the dough, depends chiefly the amount of bread 

 which it will yield. Unfortunately no determinations of the amount of 

 moisture in the flours used was made In the English tests. 



In our experiments, using the same flour under various conditions, it 

 was found possible to vary the yield of bread per 100 pounds of flour 

 as much as 15 pounds. The conditions upon which this variation 

 depends are largely physical, and include 



Percentage of water used in the dough. 



JSize of the loaves. 



Temperature of the oven. 



Time of baking. 



Of course in any series of comparative experiments these conditions 

 must be closely observed and regulated. In order to learn the best 

 modifications for our work, a preliminary series was undertaken with a 

 flour from Ohio. 



In the beginning it was found that a dough made with any of our 

 flours and as small a percentage of water as was used by the McDou- 

 galls would be altogether too stiff for successful results. 



In the English experiments with flours from American wheat 46.4 per 

 cent, of water was used, but in our experience it has been found neces- 



