acting as an antidote to corrosive sublimate."Professor Donovan's "Domestic Economy."

The water which has been whitened in washing the flour, contains the starch or farina, which, if allowed to stand for some time, will subside, when the water may be poured from it, and the starch be collected on a filter and dried.

may

Professor Johnston's more recent and highly interesting work, entitled, "The Chemistry of Common Life," directs the gluten to be obtained in an almost similar manner. He says "If flour be mixed with sufficient water to moisten it thoroughly, the particles cohere and form a smooth, elastic, and tenacious dough, which admits of being drawn out to some extent, and of being moulded into a variety of forms. If this dough be placed upon a sieve, or on a piece of muslin, and worked with the hand under a stream of water as long as the water passes through milky, there will remain at last upon the sieve a white, sticky substance, very much resembling bird-lime. This is the substance which gives its tenacity to the dough. From its glutinous nature, it has obtained amongst chemists the name of gluten. When the milky water has become clear by standing, a white powder will be at the bottom of the vessel, which is common wheaten starch."

The proportion of gluten contained in wheat varies with the quality of the grain. As much as

twenty-five per cent. of it have been obtained from some varieties; and, from what has been stated, the reader will perceive that the richer the corn is in this substance, the greater must be its value. That grown in warm climates abounds in it more than any which is produced in England; and the hard-grained, as already shown, more than the soft-kernelled white wheat. It enters into the composition of rye and other of the cereal grains, but is not precisely of the same nature; therefore, none of them are so perfectly adapted for bread. The gluten of rye-which stands next to wheat as a bread-corn-is described as "moist gluten;" and it appears to be deficient in some quality inherent in that of the wheat, as the same process of fabrication does not answer equally for both species of grain.

CHAPTER V.

TO REMOVE THE TAINT OF MUST FROM WHEAT.

To remove the Taint of Must from Wheat-Best Method of treating Corn harvested in wet Weather, or damaged by it-Manner in which Bread made from Germinated Grain should be managed; extracted from Professor Donovan's "Domestic Economy."

"THE wheat must be put into any convenient vessel capable of containing at least three times the quantity, and the vessel must subsequently be filled with boiling water. The grain must then be occasionally stirred, and the hollow or decayed grain, which will float, may be removed. When the water has become cold, or, in general, when about half an hour has elapsed, it is to be drawn off. It will be proper then to rinse the corn with cold water, in order to remove any portion of the water which may have taken up the must; after which the corn, being completely drained, is, without loss of time, to be thinly spread on the floor of a kiln, and thoroughly dried, care being taken to stir and turn it frequently during this part of the process.

"This is all that is required; and I have con

stantly found that the most musty corn, on which ordinary kiln-drying had been tried without effect, thus became completely purified, while the diminution of weight caused by the solution of the tainted part was very inconsiderable."

THE BEST MANNER OF TREATING CORN HARVESTED IN WET WEATHER, OR WHICH HAS BEEN DAMAGED BY IT; AND THE MANNER OF MANAGING THE BREAD MADE FROM GERMINATED GRAIN.

"Crops which have been for a long time more or less exposed to an abundant humidity, experience different sorts and degrees of alteration. In each of these different states they present different results to the cultivator in regard to his seed; to the miller in grinding; and to the baker in bread-making.

"Wet grain, when heaped up in granaries or in stacks without currents of air being preserved through the interior, goes speedily to ruin. The humidity does not ascend to the top, so as to evaporate; it concentrates in the interior, and hastens the germination which may have begun, or excites a fermentation, which heats and discolours the grain. At times the corn even becomes mouldy.

"When the grain of such corn is sent without preparation to the mill, it clogs the mill-stones, and is difficult to work. If the germination is

only just commenced, the process is soon completed in the sacks, and the flour begins in a few days to collect into pieces of such consistency, that it is necessary to pound it with mallets in order to render it workable. Flour of this description is difficult to work, even when very speedily used; and as it gets old, it is impossible to make bread of it without mixing it with some of a better sort.

"The drying of wet grain is the only means of arresting the progress of its destruction.-The most simple plan for this purpose, and the one which can generally be the most easily adopted, is to dry the grain in a baking-oven, which is to be met with in most places. It may be put into the oven immediately after the bread has been withdrawn: the temperature is then such that a person may introduce his naked arm without being much incommoded by the heat. After the grain has been thrown into the oven, it should be spread into a layer of from three to four inches in thickness, and turned frequently, in order to facilitate the disengagement of the vapour. At the end of ten or fifteen minutes, according to the state of humidity in which the grain is, it may be withdrawn from the oven, as it will then be sufficiently dried; and when exposed to the air until perfectly cooled, it will have acquired all the qualities necessary to render it fit for the miller and the baker.