nts for the fact, that the same weight of southern flour yields
more bread than northern, English wheat yields 13 lbs. more to the
quarter than Scotch. Alabama flour, it is said, yields 20 per cent.
more than that of Cincinnati. And in general American flour, according
to one of the most extensive London bakers, absorbs 8 or 10 per cent.
more of its own weight of water in being made into bread than the
English. The English grain is fuller and rounder than the American,
being puffed up with moisture.

Every year the total loss in the United States from moisture in wheat
and flour is estimated at four to five million dollars. To remedy this
great evil, the grain should be well ripened before harvesting, and
well dried before being stored in a good dry granary. Afterwards, in
grinding and in transporting, it should be carefully protected from
wet, and the flour be kept from exposure to the atmosphere. The best
precaution is kiln-drying. By this process the wheat and flour are
passed over iron plates heated by steam to the boiling point. From
each barrel of flour 16 or 17 pounds of water are thus expelled,
leaving still four or five per cent. in the flour, an amount too small
to do injury. If all the water be expelled, the quality of the flour
is deteriorated.

The mode of ascertaining the amount of water in flour is this; take a
small sample, say five ounces, and weigh it carefully; put it into a
dry vessel, which should be heated by boiling water; after six or
seven hours, weigh it; its loss of weight shows the original amount of
water.

The next object is to ascertain the amount of gluten. Gluten is an
adhesive, pasty mass, and consists of several different principles,
though its constitution has not yet been satisfactorily determined. It
is chiefly the nutritious portion of the flour. The remaining
principles are mostly starch, sugar and gum. On an average their
relative amount in 100 parts are about as follows:--

Average. Kobanga wheat, the best.
Water 13 12
Gluten 12 16
Starch 67 60
Sugar and Gum 8 8
--- ---
100 97

Professor Beck examined thirty-three different samples from various
parts of the United States and Europe, and he gives the preference to
the Kobanga variety from the south of