78 USES 
yearly consumption of wheat in the United Kingdom is about 
240 million bushels, three-fourths of which (valued at over 
£30,000,000) are imported. 
Rice is computed to be the staple food of one-third of mankind, 
and the yearly produce in India, China, and Japan is roundly 
estimated at 100,000,000 tons. Paddy is the grain in its husk, and 
the product of milling paddy is the pearled grain familiar to us. 
A considerable quantity is ground into flour for making puddings, 
cakes, etc., but the universal method of preparing the grains for 
food, in all parts of the world, is boiling them. The nourishing 
constituents of rice are in 100 parts: albuminoids, 74 ; starch, 76; 
fat, o'7; salts, 0°5; the nutrient ratio being 1: 103, nutrient value 85. 
The rice-consuming peoples of the East invariably use this grain 
in combination with some other highly nitrogenous food (beef, 
mutton, fish, eggs, pulse), which compensates the deficiency of 
rice in albuminoids and oil, experience having taught them what 
Europeans have discovered by chemical analysis. Old rice is 
more digestible than new; the neutral flavour of this grain renders 
it especially suitable for combination with other kinds of food. 
Maize stands in the same important relation to the inhabitants 
of the new world as wheat does to those of Europe, and rice to 
those of Southern Asia. Maize is used as human food in various 
forms: the grains may be broken or split (hominy), or pearled 
(samp), or roasted until they burst and the starch becomes everted 
(popcorn), or they may be parched. The usual method, however, 
of treating this grain is to grind it into meal. Mush, or “corn” 
meal boiled, is a universal article of diet in the United States, 
nutritious and easily digested. Ground maize cannot be made into 
bread, owing to its lack of viscidity when moistened, unless mixed 
with wheaten flour in about equal proportions. In Mexico, Central 
and South America, it is baked into thin cakes. The average 
composition of maize is, in 100 parts : water, 14 ; albuminoids, 9°2; 
starch, 68; fat, 5 ; salts, 1°8 ; cellulose, 2. Soit is poorer than wheat 
in flesh-formers, but contains more oil than any of the other grains, 
oats excepted ; it has a high nutrient value, namely 88. Various 
preparations of maize sold in this country as corn-flour, maizena, 
etc., are used for puddings and blanc-mange, but as they are largely 
adulterated with starch, the percentage of albuminoids is very low. 
One of the most nutritious cereals is the oat. The grains are 
prepared for human food by being kiln-dried, husked, and ground 
into meal which is used in the form of porridge and cakes. 
Oaten flour lacks the glutinous property necessary in a bread 
grain. The nourishing constituents of oatmeal are, in 100 parts : 
water, 10 ; albuminoids, 14 ; starch, 65 ; fat, 7; mineral matters, 2; 
the nutrient ratio being 1:52, nutrient value 95, or even 100 in 
some samples. Oatmeal is richer in nitrogenous matters than 
wheat (the horny varieties of wheat excepted) and is richer in fat 
than any of the other grains ; it therefore approaches more nearly 
to the composition of a perfectly adjusted food. 
Barley, largely used as food by ancient peoples, has now given 
