FLOTSAM 



2221 



FLOUR 



his greatest work. Martha was sung in Vienna 

 in 1847 for the first time. At the age of 

 eighteen he began to devote himself to com- 

 position. His first operatic venture was Peter 

 and Catherine, which was brought out at Hotel 

 Castellan, about 1831. He then composed La 

 Duchesse de Guise, which was founded on a 

 Polish story and was produced for the benefit 

 of the Polish exiles. Stradella, produced in 

 1837, was his first great success. Besides the 

 operas mentioned, Flotow wrote others, in- 

 cluding L'Ame en Peine, L'Ombre, 11 Flor 

 d'Harlam, Enchantress, Indra and eleven others 

 of lesser note. 



FLOT'SAM, JET 'SAM AND LI 'CAN, Eng- 

 lish legal terms, the first referring to ship- 

 wrecked goods which float; the second, to 

 goods thrown overboard, which sink and are 

 lost; and the third, to goods which sink, but 

 which are tied to a buoy so that they may be 

 recovered. No owner appearing to claim them, 

 goods which are saved are forfeited to the 

 Crown. The American term for shipwrecked 

 goods which are recovered is salvage. 



FLOUN'DER, an important flatfish, valuable 

 for food, found in the ocean along the shores 

 of almost all countries. The family includes 

 the halibuts, flounders proper and turbots. 

 Young flounders swim erect like other fish, and 



THE FLOUNDER 



have an eye on each side of the head, but the 

 grown-up flounders swim with one side upper- 

 most and have both eyes on the upper side, 

 one set lower than the other, giving the' face 

 a twisted appearance. These fish live in waters 

 where the bottom is smooth, sandy or muddy, 

 but never rocky, and grow very large, some 

 weighing as much as 500 pounds. The upper 

 side of the body is colored much like the sea 

 bottom where the fish lives; the under side is 

 white, or nearly so. See FLATFISH. 



FLOUR, the nutritious portion of wheat and 

 other grains, ground and purified. Of the 

 various kinds of flour, that made from wheat 



is the most valuable and the most widely 

 used, so the word without any qualifying term 

 has come to mean wheat flour. Flour from 

 most of the other cereals is named from the 

 grain, as rye flour and barley flour; that from 

 oats and corn is commonly known as meal. 



Varieties of Flour. The most common form 

 of wheat flour is the fine meal that is so ex- 

 tensively employed in making white bread. 

 In modern milling six grades are manufactured, 

 and by blending different grades the various 

 commercial flours sold under appropriate trade 

 names are produced. The highest grade, 

 known as first patent, makes the whitest bread 

 and loaves of the largest size from a given 

 quantity; the lowest grade, red dog, is used 

 chiefly as an animal food. 



White flour derives its nutritive qualities 

 mainly from starch, gluten, fat and minerals. 

 Its universal use in bread-making is due to 

 the presence of gluten. This substance, which 

 does not occur in the same form in other 

 cereal flours, gives bread dough its stickiness 

 and toughness, enabling it to retain the bub- 

 bles of gas formed by yeast or baking powder 

 and thus giving it the quality of "lightness." 



Flour is valued according to its color, free- 

 dom from dirt and particles of the outer husks, 

 or bran, capacity of absorbing water, fat con- 

 tent, amount and quality of gluten and degree 

 of fineness; but the final test of any brand 

 of flour is the character of the bread made 

 from it. The most progressive flour mills test 

 their product in experimental bakeries main- 

 tained especially for that purpose. Spring 

 wheat, which grows in the summer and is 

 harvested in the autumn, makes better bread 

 than winter wheat, which is sowed in the fall, 

 because it contains a larger proportion of 

 gluten ; the latter, however, is superior to spring 

 wheat for pastry. Crackers and macaroni are 

 other important food products of wheat flour. 



The consumption of wheat flour increased 

 so rapidly during the nineteenth century that 

 at one time it was feared the demand would 

 outstrip the available wheat supply, but the 

 opening up of great wheat tracts in such 

 regions as the Canadian Northwest has averted 

 that danger. It is estimated that the people 

 of the United States and Canada consume in 

 a year about 200 pounds of flour each, which 

 is equivalent to four and one-half bushels of 

 wheat. Bread, pastry, crackers and other flour 

 preparations constitute about nineteen per cent 

 of the total food of the average family. 



Besides the standard white flours, Graham 



