UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



I BULLETIN No. 788 



Contribution from the Bureau of Markets 

 CHARLES J. BRAND, Chief. 



J^/t^'^^ 



Washington, D. C. 



PROFESSIONAL PAPER. 



May 15, 1919 



MOISTURE IN WHEAT AND MILL PRODUCTS. 



By J. H. Shollenberger, 

 Grain Supervisor, in Charge of Milling Investigations. 



CONTENTS. 



Introduction 1 



Moisture requirements of wheat for milluig 



purposes 2 



Amount of moisture added to wheat during 



tempering 2 



Moisture content of wheat and various 



streams of mill stock 3 



Effect of tempering upon the moisture 



content of wheat 6 



Distributton of moisture in the tempered 

 wheat kernel 7 



Page. 

 Moisture content of wheat and various 

 streams of null stock — Continued. 



Loss of moisture during grinding 8 



Moisture content of diflerent flour streams 9 

 Moisture content and jrield of mill prod- 

 ucts 10 



Gains and losses in weight effected by 

 change in moistiire content incident to 



tempering and milling 11 



Summary of results 12 



INTRODUCTION. 



In November, 1914, investigations were begun by the Department 

 of Agriculture at Kansas City, Mo., in cooperation with several flour 

 mills for the purpose of obtaining further information concerning 

 the relative importance of moisture in the wheat kernel from the 

 standpoint of milling. The flour-producing capacity of the mills co- 

 operating in this work ranged from 500 to 3,000 barrels per 24 hours. 

 The investigations, while not of sufficient scope to estabhsh any defi- 

 nite conclusions, are of interest in so far as the results obtained dis- 

 close conditions present in the particular cases examined. 



In obtaining the samples used in connection with these investiga- 

 tions, great care was exercised that each would be as nearly as pos- 

 sible representative of the particular lot or stream of stock sampled. 

 Upon obtaining the samples they were immediately placed in air- 

 tight containers and sealed up until the time of determining the mois- 

 ture content, which determinations were made in every instance 

 within a week after the samples were drawn. In the case of the 

 wheat samples, their moisture content was determined by use of the 

 Brown-Duvel moisture tester, and in the case of the other samples 



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