52 DOES THE STRENGTH OF FLOUR DEPEND 



tion and settlers vigorously to prosecute their cultural 

 operations. 



Against the flour of province-grown wheat, however, 

 there is a prejudice which I have found prevalent over 

 a large portion of New Brunswick, and which is distinct 

 from the prejudice of the lumberers in favour of the 

 fairest, and finest, and highest-priced flour. I have 

 already stated, that nearly all the wheat of this province 

 is spring wheat, and the prejudice is in favour of the 

 flour of fall or winter wheat that it is more nutritious. 

 It is said that the flour of winter wheat will take more 

 water, and make more bread, and that a cask of it will 

 go farther in the feeding of a family. I may be wrong 

 in speaking of this preference as a prejudice, since it is 

 not impossible that the winter-wheat flour may really be 

 drier, and may therefore contain more nutritive matter 

 in a given weight ; or the dry matter in the one may be 

 of a more nutritive quality than in the other, and more 

 suited to sustain a hard-working or growing family. 



That different samples of flour take up different pro 

 portions of water, has been long known both to millers 

 and to bakers. That of southern or warm climates is 

 usually considered the strongest capable, that is, of 

 taking up most water. In the United States, for 

 example, the advantage in using the flour of Alabama 

 wheat above that of Cincinnati is said to amount to 20- 

 per cent, which is surely an exaggeration. But it has 

 not been shown that this capacity for water is regulated 

 by, or is in any way in proportion to, the natural 

 dryness of the flour. The quantity of water contained 

 by flour, when brought to market, varies, in extreme 

 cases, from 11 J to 14 per cent, the average being 

 about 13 per cent. But as the quantity of water 

 absorbed by flour, when baked into bread, is about 

 one - third of its whole weight, it is obvious that 

 an original difference of 1 or even 2 per cent, in the 



