s. A greyish flour invariably contains
impurities, such as crease dirt, from the wheat, the intensity of the
tint varying in proportion to their amount. With regard to a yellow
tint, though this always denotes the presence of gluten, it is difficult
to estimate the baking quality of the flour by the shade of yellow. In
the best Hungarian patent flour the whole sample will be suffused by an
amber tint, known to Budapest and Vienna bakers as _gelblicher Stich_.
Rolls baked from the best Hungarian flour will not infrequently cut
yellow as if eggs had been used in making them up, though nothing more
than flour, yeast and water has been employed. Strong flour milled from
American or Canadian spring wheat is also yellowish in colour, but the
tint is not so deep as with Hungarian flour. On the other hand, there
are flours of no great strength, such as those from some Australian
wheats, which are apt to look yellow. When the colour of flour is not
maintained in the bread, the reason is generally to be found in the
baking process employed. Colour is a fairly trustworthy, but not an
absolute guide to the chemical composition of flour.

Damp and flour.

Unfortunately not all flour of good colour is sound for bread-making
purposes. Wheat which has been harvested in a damp condition, or has
been thoroughly soaked, by drenching showers previous to cutting, or has
got wet in the stook, is liable, unless carefully handled, to produce
flour that will only bake flat, sodden loaves. Wheat which has received
too much rain as it is approaching maturity, and has then been exposed
to strong sunlight, is peculiarly liable to sprout. This seems to happen
not infrequently to La Plata wheat, and though wheat shippers in that
country are usually careful to clean off the little green spikes, this
outward cleansing does not remedy the mischief wrought to the internal
constitution of the berry. Such wheat makes flour lacking in strength
and stability. Its gluten is immature and low in percentage, while the
soluble albuminoids are in high percentage and in a more or less active
diastasic state. The starch granules are liable to have weakened or
fissured walls, and the proportion of moisture and of soluble extract
will be high. With regard to the beneficial action of kiln or other
drying on damp flour, William Jago was convinced by a series of
experiments that the gentle artificial drying of flour increases its
water-absorbing capacity to about th