BREAD AND BREAD MAKING.
As a conservation measure during the war with Germany, the United States Food Admin istration requested that 100 pounds of standard wheat should be milled so as to produce not less than 74% pounds of flour; the residue, about 25 pounds, consisted of wheat by products, the flour milled in accord with the United Stales Food Administration regulations being designated 100 per cent flour; no separa tions in patent and clear grades being made. One hundred per cent flour, comprising all the flour separated from the wheat, is about a 75 per cent extraction (not less than 74K), that is it represents about 75 per cent of the wheat milled. This flour should not be confused with 100 per cent extraction flour, which is a graham flour. The 100 per cent flour contains no bran or wheat by-products, while the 100 per cent extraction flour contains all the bran and by products of the wheat. To make the short wheat crop of 1917 go as far as possible in bread-making, bakers were required to mix from 20 to 25 per cent of other flours as corn flour, barley flour or oat flour with the wheat flour used. By this and other means a large amount of wheat and flour was made available for export to other countries at war with Germany, and also to neutral countries.
It is estimated that four and a half bushels of wheat, equivalent to about 200 pounds of flour, are consumed annually per capita in the United States. More flour is consumed in the Northern than in the Southern States. The consumption of flour as food has, during recent years, gradually increased. Some political economists and scientists have feared that at no distant date the consumption of flour would exceed the production of wheat. But improved
methods of agriculture and the opening up of large tracts of land suitable for wheat culture, as in northwestern Canada, render this improb able. From earliest times wheat and wheat flour have taken an important part in the dietary of man and there is every reason to believe that it will continue to be one of his staple articles of food. The extent to which it should be used in the dietary depends largely upon the individual and the cost of food. Ordi narily wheat flour is one of the cheapest articles of food and when it forms a part or even the main portion of a ration, it supplies a large amount of nutrients in a digestible form and at a low cost.
Production.— According to the special census of manufactures for the calendar year 1914 the production of wheat flour in the United States for that year totaled 116,045,090 barrels, valued at $542,051,752— an increase of 9.7 per cent in quantity, hut a decrease of 1.5 per cent in value, as compared with the figures for 1909. The amount of wheat consumed in making this product was 543,970,038 bushels, an increase of 9.6 per cent over that consumed in 1909. A large quantity of bran and middlings amounting to nearly 4,000,000 tons, and valued at nearly $100,000,000 was also turned out as a by-product, besides a large output of "offal,* used as stock feed. Exact figures were not reported for these products of the flour mills, the whole output for all grist mills being grouped. The totals may be found under the article FLOUR MILLING, AMERICAN.