STATISTICS OF WHEAT CULTURE . 



237 



abroad, the Oregon wheat in Virginia, and a variety of Illinois wheat, &c. 

 And in regard to the effect of particular modes of culture, the various analyses 

 of Boussingault may be referred to, and that in my table of a sample from 

 Ulster county, New York. 



4. The deterioration of many of the samples of wheat and wheat flour 

 arises in most cases from the presence of a too large per centage of water. 

 This is often the result of a want of proper care in the transport, and is the 

 principal cause of the losses which are sustained by those who are engaged in 

 this branch of business. 



5. There seems to be little doubt that a considerable portion of the wheat 

 and wheat flour, as well as of other breadstuff's, shipped from this country to 

 England, is more or less injured before it reaches that market. It is also shown 

 that this is mostly to be ascribed to the want of care above noticed, and to the 

 fraudulent mixture of good and bad kinds. The remedy in the former case is 

 the drying of the grain or flour before shipment, by some of the modes pro- 

 posed, and Ihe protection of it afterwards as completely as possible from the 

 effect of moisture. The frauds which are occasionally practised should be 

 promptly exposed, and those who are engaged in them held up to merited 

 reproach. 



6. It has been fully shown, by the results of many trials, that the flour ob- 

 tained by the second grinding of wheat, or the whole meal, contains more 

 gluten than the fine flour. Hence the general use of the latter, and the entire 

 rejection of the bran, is wasteful, and ought in every way to be discouraged. 



7. Jit cannot but be gratifying to us that the average nutritive value of the 

 wheat and wheat flour of the United States is shown by these analyses to be 

 fully equal to, if not greater than, that afforded by the samples produced in 

 any other part of the world. And it will, in my opinion, be chiefly owing to 

 a want of proper care and of commercial honesty, if the great advantages 

 which should accrue to this country from the export of these articles are either 

 endangered or entirely lost. 



TABLE EXHIBITING THE PER CENTAGE COMPOSITION OF VARIOUS SAMPLES OF 

 AMEEICAN AND FOREIGN WHEAT FLOUR, BY LEWIS C. BECK, M.D. (1849). 



