TO PREVENT UNSOUNDNESS OF WHEAT. 147 



damp grain to the market is very great indeed ; in this 

 country the subject has never been investigated in the 

 manner which its importance deserves, not so in America 

 where men of science have taken it up with spirit. In 

 that country the estimated annual loss has been reckoned 

 at from 600,000 to 1,000,000 sterling. Moisture with 

 heat a condition almost invariably the result of stacking 

 or storing badly got grain reduces the quantity of gluten 

 which it contains, this constituting the most nutritive 

 portion of the grain. Sporules of different kinds of mush- 

 rooms are also developed in consequence of moisture, 

 these generally appearing in the flour or in the bread made 

 from it. The best test of the value of wheat flour is the 

 quantity of bread made from it, and we find that the drier 

 and sounder the grain the greater is the yield of bread. 

 A quarter of good flour has yielded 13 Ib. more of bread 

 than the same quantity of bad flour made from moist and 

 therefore unsound grain. All authorities have agreed in 

 condemning the practice adopted by our farmers in send- 

 ing undried corn with moisture varying from 15 to 20 per 

 cent, contained in it into the market ; and numerous cal- 

 culations have been made, more or less accurate in detail, 

 yet all clearly showing the existence of a loss to the farm- 

 ing community of serious importance, as well as from the 

 habit of storing up grain in sheaves in a damp condition. 

 It is quite obvious that a method or methods of increasing 

 the bread-producing powers or qualities of a wheat, as well 

 as of its keeping qualities (so that it may be easily stored 

 without loss), must be an immense advantage to the farmer. 



SECTION SECOND. METHODS ADOPTED TO PREVENT UNSOUND- 

 NESS IN WHEAT ARISING FROM MOISTURE THE STORING 



OF WHEAT. 



22. There is no department of farming in which the value 

 of the old proverb is so apparent "prevention is better 

 than cure" as that in the harvesting of the cereal crops, 

 that is, getting them secured in such a way that the grain 



