162 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



" Dyspepsia is our national curse. It is the source of the 

 greatest suffering and the greatest weaknesses of the Ameri- 

 can people, and it is generally conceded that among the factors 

 of our national diseases none is so important and none so 

 universal as the bad quality of our national bread." 



We cannot expect or hope that great improvement will be 

 made in the essential art of making wholesome bread, unless 

 the ignorance and failures are exposed, equally with the 

 success and knowledge gained by careful experiment. 



From the many specimens before us we perceive that there 

 is a commendable ambition among the ladies of Dukes County 

 to excel in making bread. The greater part of it is delicious ; 

 some of it a failure, owing, not to lack of labor or a desire 

 to excel, but to lack of knowledge gained by practical inform- 

 ation. The loaves of brown bread and of corn-bread were 

 well made and baked, with a few exceptions. There were 

 several loaves of very good bread without the statement of 

 the manner of making it, or the name of the maker. 



Bread made from wheat is more desirable than bread made 

 from any other grain, because the proportions and character 

 of its constituent parts are better suited for food, for brain 

 and muscle. The chief constituents are gluten and starch, 

 gluten belonging to the muscle-forming group, starch to the 

 fat-formers. Flour with the most gluten is most economical 

 and sweetest. It is quite a matter of importance to be able 

 to judge of its richness in gluten. There is a marked differ- 

 ence between the nourishing qualities of flour from Southern 

 and Northern wheat. 



The Report of the Patent Office for 1848 states that the 

 Alabama flour yielded twenty per cent, more bread than 

 flour from Cincinnati. It is said that the gluten of Southern 

 wheat does not, to so great an extent as in Northern wheat, 

 reside in a crust around the surface of the grain, but is more 

 enclosed in the starch in the centre ; this may account for the 

 superior richness of Southern flour. 



There are at the present day many experiments in flour- 

 makinc. The " attrition flour" made in Chicago is obtained 

 from the best quality of wheat. The flouring of the wheat 

 is done at one operation, in large and powerful currents of 

 cold air, and no bolt is used to separate the outside covering 



