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JVutrition of Superfine Flour, or Whole Meal. Vol. XII. 



paration of the soil, particularly to have the 

 top well pulverized. The seed is sown with 

 great accuracy by a machine, and strict at- 

 tention is given to keepinj.-- the crop clear of 

 weeds. It is calculated that one man and 

 two boys of the ages of twelve to sixteen 

 years will manage ten acres. Mr. P. says 

 he knows of several individuals who com- 

 menced this business at the age of twenty- 

 one, and have pursued it up for a dozen years 

 or more, have brought up respectable fami- 

 lies, and are now worth comfortable estates. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Nutrition of Superfine Flour, or Whole 



Meal. 



To THE Editor, — T lately came across 

 the following remarks and calculations of 

 Professor Johnston, and they seemed to me 

 so practical, and to every day purpose, that 

 I forward them to the Cabinet. But perhaps 

 the Editor will exclaim. What! "book eat- 

 ing!" why the very idea of that will frighten 

 our readers more than "book farming." Per- 

 haps it may do so. No doubt many will put 

 the article aside, and conclude that their sto- 

 machs and their fathers' were as wise with- 

 out chemistry as the Professor's is, in the 

 midst of his laboratory. Still facts are stub- 

 born things, and we all know, who have 

 been so unfortunate as to be dyspeptic our- 

 selves, or to have friends who were, that 

 "bran" bread does suit weak digestive pow- 

 ers, and I am apt to conclude, if the Doc- 

 tor's scales and tests have been right, that 

 there must be something in the results worth 

 looking into. N. 



"I propose to show, in an intelligible man- 

 ner, that whole meal flour is really more 

 nourishing, as well as more wholesome, than 

 fine white flour, as food for man. 



"The solid parts of the human body con- 

 sist, principally, of three several portions: 

 the fat, the muscle, and the bone. These 

 three substances are liable to constant waste 

 in the living body, and therefore must be 

 constantly renewed from the food that we 

 eat. The vegetable food that we consume 

 contains these three substances almost ready 

 formed. The plant is the brickmaker. The 

 animal voluntarily introduces these bricks 

 into its stomach, and then involuntarily — 

 through the- operation of the mysterious ma- 

 chinery within — picks out these bricks, trans- 

 ports them to different parts of the body, and 

 builds them into their appropriate places. As 

 tlie miller at his mill throws into the hopper 

 the unground grain, and forthwith by the in 

 voluntary movements of the machinery, re 

 ceives iu his several sacks his fine flour, the 



seconds, the middlings, the pollard, and the 

 bran ; so in the human body, by a still more 

 refined separation, the fat is extracted and 

 deposited here, the muscular matter there, 

 and the bony material in a third locality, 

 where it can not only be stored up, but 

 where its presence is actually at the mo- 

 ment necessary. 



Again, the fluid parts of the body contain 

 the same substances in a liquid form, on 

 their way to or from the several parts of the 

 body in wliich they are required. They in- 

 clude also a portion of salt or saline matter 

 which is dissolved in them, as we dissolve 

 common salt in our soup, or Epsom salts in 

 the pleasant draugiits with which our doc- 

 tors delight to vex us. This saline matter 

 is also obtained from the food. 



Now it is self-evident, that that food must 

 be the most nourishing which supplies all 

 the ingredients of the body most abundantly 

 on the whole, or in proportion most suited to' 

 the actual wants of the individual animal to 

 which it is given. 



How stands the question, then, in regard 

 to this yjoint between the brown bread and 

 the white — the fine flour and the whole meal 

 of wheat? 



The grain of wheat consists of two parts, 

 with which the miller is familiar — the inner 

 grain and the skin that covers it. The inner 

 grain gives the pure white flour; the skin, 

 when separated, forms the bran. The mil- 

 ler cannot entirely peel off" the skin from his 

 grain, and thus some of it is unavoidably 

 ground up with his flour. By sifting, he 

 separates it more or less completely — his 

 seconds, middlings, &c., owing their colour 

 to the proportion of brown bran that has 

 passed through the sieve along with the 

 flour. The whole meal, as it is called, of 

 which the so-named brown household bread 

 is made, consists of the entire grain ground 

 up together — used as it comes from the mill- 

 stones unsifted, and therefore containing all 

 the bran. 



The first white flour, therefore, may be 

 said to contain no bran, while the whole 

 meal contains all that grew naturally upon 

 the grain. 



What is the composition of these two por- 

 tions of the seed] How much do they re- 

 spectively contain of the several constituents 

 of the animal body ! How much of each is 

 contained also in the whole grain'! 



1. The fat. Of this ingredient a thou- 

 sand pounds of the 



Whole grain contain 28 lbs. 



Fme flour " 20 " 



Bran " 60 » 



So that the bran is much richer in fat than 



