BooxVI. WHEAT. 819 



5049. The yield of wheat infiour is, on an average, thirteen pounds of flour to fourteen 

 pounds of grain. In the chemical analysis of wheat, Sir Humphrey Davy found that 

 one hundred parts of good full-grained wheat, sown in autumn, yield of starch seventy- 

 seven, and of gluten nineteen ; one hundi-ed parts of wheat, sown in spring, seventy of 

 starch, and twenty-four of gluten. American wheats he found to contain more gluten 

 than the British ; and, in general, the wheat of wann climates to abound more in gluten 

 and in insoluble parts, and to be of greater specific gravity, harder, and more difficult to 

 grind. 



5050. The uses of wheat in the baking, culinary, and confectionary arts are well known. 

 It is also used for making starch, by steeping the grain and then beating it in hempen 

 bags. The mucilage is thus mixed with the water, produces the acetous fermentation, 

 and the weak acid thus formed renders the mucilage white. After settling, the precipi- 

 tate is repeatedly washed, and then moulded into square cakes and kiln-dried. In 

 drying, the cakes separate into flakes, as in the starch of the shops. Starch is soluble 

 in hot water, but not in cold ; and hence, when ground down, it makes an excellent 

 hair powder. Its constituents are: carbon, 43 '55 ; oxygen, 49*68 ; and hydrogen, 

 6*77 = 100. 



5051. The uses of wheat straw are various and well known. As fodder it is, according 

 to Professor Tliaer, the most nourishing of any; and it makes the best thatch: it is 

 generally preferred for* litter, though rye and barley straw are softer: it is used for 

 making bee-hives, horse collars, mattresses, huts, boxes, baskets, and all kinds of what 

 is called Dunstable work ; for the cider press ; and, among other things, for burning, to 

 procure potash from the ashes. The straw of wheat from dry chalky lands is manufac- 

 tured into hats for both men and women. For this purpose, the middle part of the tube, 

 above the last joint, is taken ; and, being cut into a length of eight or ten inches, is split 

 in two. These splits are then plaited, by females and children, into various kinds of 

 plait or ribands, from half an inch to an inch broad: these, when sewed together according 

 to fancy or fashion, form different descriptions of ladies' bonnets, and the commoner plait 

 and coarser straw of men's hats. The hats are whitened by being placed in the vapour 

 of sulphur. Leghorn hats are made from the straw of a bearded variety of wheat, which 

 some have confounded with rye. It is cultivated on the poorest sandy soils in the 

 neighbourhood of the Arno, between Leghorn and Florence, expressly for this manu- 

 facture. It is of humble growth, and not above eighteen inches high ; is pulled up 

 when green, and bleached white by spreading and watering on the gravelly banks of the 

 Arno. The straws are not split ; but in other respects the manvifacture into ribands is 

 the same as at Dunstable in England and in the Orkney Islands. 



5052. T/ie Leghorn mamtfacture oj wheat straw into the well-known hats has lately been enquired into, 

 and detailed in several publications. The variety of wheat cultivated in Tuscany for this purpose is 

 known as the grano marxuolo, or marxolano, a variety of summer wheat with long bearded ears. It is 

 cultivated on the sandy hills on both sides of the valley of the Arno. The seed is sown in March, very 

 thick, and pulled when the ear is fully shot, but before the grain is formed. It is then 18 inches high, if 

 the crop is good ; it is bleached as we do flax, and afterwards tied up in bundles in the same manner, and 

 carried home, to have the part between the ear and the first fruit in the stalk selected, that being the 

 only part used. {Gard. Mag. vol. v. p. 70.) 



5053. To obtain the whiteness so tnuch prized, the straw is smoked with sulphur previously to being 

 worked ; the plait is also sm.oked ; and, lastly, the hat. About Sienna the process is simply a little sul- 

 phur set on fire in the bottom of a large chest, bunches of the straw being placed on long hazel rods 

 across, and the lid shut down. Elsewhere the articles are described as being placed in a small close room, 

 in which a chafing dish of sulphur is placed, and set fire to. Sometimes the operation requires to be done 

 twice before it succeeds. 



5054. The straw for use is classed or stapled like our wool. Children or inferior hands work the coarse 

 thick straw, while good hands work the fine only. Whether fine or coarse, it is oniy the part on which 

 the spike grows that is made use of; and it is always the same plait, consisting of thirteen straws, which 

 is worked. In the fine plait there is a very greiit waste of str?w, as they reject all that is in the least 

 too thick, and they cut ofFa considerable part of the straw when it comes near the flower-spike. Fine 

 plait is not accounted good unless very much drawn together ; for which end it is worked very wet. The 

 bunches of straw are always put into a small jar, filled with cold water, which stands beside the worker. 

 After being smoked and pressed, the plait is made up into hats by women, who do nothing else ; it is not 

 put together by edges, nor overlapped. On the operation of pressing, a great deal depends : there are 

 only two good machines for that purpose in the country. Such is the practice for procuring the hat 

 straw : what they sow for seed is in other ground: not one fourth of the seed is used,* and the grain is 

 allowed to come to maturity in the usual way. It is said to be a capital wheat for vermicelli, macaroni, 

 &c., and also for making into bread. {Gard. Mag. vol. v. p. 71.) 



5{)!)5. The introduction of the grano marxuolo into Britain has been tried, but not attended with success. 

 Messrs. J. and A. Muir, after various trials, found the straw of rye preferable. 



5u56 The mode of plaiting is asfolloms : The straws being picked, and put into separate bundles, ac- 

 cording to their quality, let thirteen of them be taken and tied firmly together by the seed ends; attach 

 them to any thing, such as the back of a chair, to keep them steady ; then take hold of the loose end of 

 the bundle, putting six straws into the one hand, and seven into the other. Take the outermost, and with 

 it cross over two ; then carry it behind the next two; and lastly, before the remaining two; after which 

 lay the straw into the other parcel of six. The first parcel of six being now made seven, take the outer- 

 most straw of it, and carry it across the bundle, by two, as in the former case, laying at last this seventh 

 straw into the outer parcel as before. It will be understood by this, that the outermost straw of each 

 parcel is always made the acting straw, and that, in the progress of the operation, each of the straws of 

 both parcels is thus employed in its turn. 



50.')7. As the work goes on, it will be necessary now and then to join in new straws, Seeing any one 

 needing to be renewed, watch until it becomes the acting straw ; and, when it is to be laid into the other 

 parcel, after performing its round, lay it up over the piece of plait, instead of putting it into the 



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