aterials or their
products, and at least 12-1/2 per cent of proteids, of which the larger
portion is in the form of gliadin. It is believed that a better quality
of bread could be produced from many flours by slight changes or
modifications in the process of bread making. It cannot be expected that
the same process will give the best results alike with all types and
kinds of flour. The kind of fermentation process that will produce the
best bread from a given type of flour can be determined only by
experimentation. Poor bread making is due as often to lack of skill on
the part of the bread maker, and to poor yeast, as it is to poor quality
of flour. Frequently the flour is blamed when the poor bread is due to
other factors. Lack of control of the fermentation process, and the
consequent development of acid and other organisms which check the
activity of the alcoholic ferments, is a frequent cause of poor bread.

189. Digestibility of Bread.--Extensive experiments have been made by
the Office of Experiment Stations of the United States Department of
Agriculture, at the Minnesota and Maine Experiment Stations, to
determine the digestibility and nutritive value of bread. Different
kinds and types of wheat were milled so as to secure from each three
flours: graham, entire wheat, and standard patent. The flours were made
into bread, and the bread fed to workingmen, and its digestibility
determined. The experiments taken as a whole show that bread is an
exceedingly digestible food, nearly 98 per cent of the starch or
carbohydrate nutrients and about 88 per cent of the gluten or proteid
constituents being assimilated by the body. In the case of the graham
and entire wheat flours, although they contained a larger total amount
of protein, the nutrients were not as completely digested and absorbed
by the body as were those of the white flour. The body secured a larger
amount of nutrients from the white than from the other grades of flour,
the digestibility of the three types being as follows: standard patent
flour, protein 88.6 per cent and carbohydrates 97.7 per cent; entire
wheat flour, protein 82 percent and carbohydrates 93.5 per cent; graham
flour, protein 74.9 per cent and carbohydrates 89.2 per cent. The low
digestibility of the protein of the graham and entire wheat flours is
supposed to be due to the coarser granulation; the proteins, being
embedded and surrounded with cellular tissue, escape the action of the
digestive