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  The Cambridge Manuals of Science and
  Literature


  THE STORY OF A LOAF OF BREAD




  CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

  London: FETTER LANE, E.C.

  C. F. CLAY, MANAGER

  [Illustration]

  Edinburgh: 100, PRINCES STREET

  London: H. K. LEWIS, 136, GOWER STREET, W.C.

  WILLIAM WESLEY & SON, 28, ESSEX STREET, STRAND

  Berlin: A. ASHER AND CO.

  Leipzig: F. A. BROCKHAUS

  New York: G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS

  Bombay and Calcutta: MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd.


  _All rights reserved_




[Illustration:

  THE STORY OF
  A LOAF OF BREAD

  BY

  T. B. WOOD, M.A.

  Drapers Professor of Agriculture
  in the University of Cambridge

  Cambridge:
  at the University Press

  New York:
  G. P. Putnam’s Sons

  1913]




  Cambridge:

  PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A.
  AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS

_With the exception of the coat of arms at the foot, the design on
the title page is a reproduction of one used by the earliest known
Cambridge printer, John Siberch, 1521_




PREFACE


I have ventured to write this little book with some diffidence, for it
deals with farming, milling and baking, subjects on which everyone has
his own opinion. In the earlier chapters I have tried to give a brief
sketch of the growing and marketing of wheat. If I have succeeded, the
reader will realise that the farmer’s share in the production of the
staple food of the people is by no means the simple affair it appears
to be. The various operations of farming are so closely interdependent
that even the most complex book-keeping may fail to disentangle the
accounts so as to decide with certainty whether or not any innovation
is profitable. The farmer, especially the small farmer, spends his days
in the open air, and does not feel inclined to indulge in analytical
book-keeping in the evening. Consequently, the onus of demonstrating
the economy of suggested innovations in practice lies with those who
make the suggestions. This is one of the many difficulties which
confronts everyone who sets out to improve agriculture.

In the third and fourth chapters I have discussed the quality of wheat.
I have tried to describe the investigations which are in progress with
the object of improving wheat from the point of view of both the farmer
and the miller, and to give some account of the success with which they
have been attended. Incidentally I have pointed out the difficulties
which pursue any investigation which involves the cultivation
on the large scale of such a crop as wheat, and the consequent
need of adopting due precautions to ensure accuracy before making
recommendations to the farmer. Advice based on insufficient evidence is
more than likely to be misleading. Every piece of misleading advice is
a definite handicap to the progress of agricultural science.

The fifth chapter is devoted to a short outline of the milling
industry. In chapter VI the process of baking is described. In the last
two chapters the composition of bread is discussed at some length. I
have tried to state definitely and without bias which points in this
much debated subject are known with some certainty, and which points
require further investigation.

Throughout the following pages, but especially in chapters III and IV,
I have drawn freely upon the work of my colleagues. I am also much
indebted to my friends, Mr A. E. Humphries, the chairman of the Home
Grown Wheat Committee, and Mr E. S. Beaven of Warminster, whose advice
has always been at my disposal. A list of publications on the various
branches of the subject will be found at the end of the volume.

  T. B. W.

  GONVILLE AND CAIUS COLLEGE,
  CAMBRIDGE.
  _3 December, 1912._




CONTENTS


  CHAP.                                                             PAGE

  Preface                                                              v

  I. Wheat-growing                                                     1

  II. Marketing                                                       15

  III. The quality of wheat                                           27

  IV. The quality of wheat from the miller’s point of view            51

  V. The milling of wheat                                             74

  VI. Baking                                                          91

  VII. The composition of bread                                      108

  VIII. Concerning different kinds of bread                          120

  Bibliography                                                       136

  Index                                                              139




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


  FIG.                                                              PAGE

  1. Typical ears of wheat                                            30

  2. Bird-proof enclosure for variety testing                         34

  3. A wheat flower to illustrate the method of cross-fertilising     41

  4. Parental types and