326 



Quality in Wheat. 



[SEPT., 



in an incubator, and also the nitrogenous matter soluble in a 

 3 per cent, solution of common salt, which represents approxi- 

 mately the strength of the salt solution formed in the dough 

 during the bread-making process. Latterly, also, determinations 

 of the phosphoric acid and other salts going into solution 

 were made, so much do the physical properties and reactions 

 of the proteids vary with the presence or absence of small 

 quantities of mineral matters. 



The importance of the determination of the nitrogen soluble 

 in water after fifteen hours 1 digestion lies in the fact that in many 

 samples of flour enzymes are present which in that time are 

 capable of effecting much change in the proteids, a change 

 which must go on during the ordinary process of bread making 

 while the dough is standing. 



The following tables give a selection from the results obtained 

 in 1902 and 1903. The "bakers' marks " which are set out in 

 the last column of each table give the strength of the flour as 

 estimated by a practical baker who spends his whole time in 

 making baking tests of flour and allotting marks to them on an 

 arbitrary scale representing his own judgment. Obviously, they 

 are only approximate figures, but to keep them as truly compara- 

 tive as possible a particular mixture of average English wheat was 

 kept and baked as a standard for comparison with each of the 

 trial bakings, the standard being always marked at 60, and the 

 others judged from that basis. Of course, the baker makes not 

 a single loaf, but a small batch each time, and forms his opinion 

 from the whole series. By way of check, also, the same flour 

 was repeatedly baked (in no case did the man making the tests 

 know the name or origin of the flour he was handling), and gave 

 each time sensibly identical results, so that the figures may be 

 taken to indicate with fair accuracy the " strength " of the flour 

 from the practical man's point of view. 



Table I. deals with samples of tw T o kinds of wheat — Red 

 Lammas and Square Head's Master — grown on seven different 

 soils, but from the same let of seed, in 1902. These wheats 

 were selected because Old Red Lammas has the reputation of 

 being one of the strongest English wheats, while Square Head's 

 Master represents perhaps the most widely grown and heaviest 

 yielding modern English wheat. The trial thoroughly con- 



