wire in the wheat, which became red-hot passing through the rollers. This is one reason also for the extreme care used in cleaning the wheat before grinding, lest any bit of iron should pass through the machinery.

"The dust drawn from the air, with the sweepings from the boxes and shafts, is saved and used in the inferior grades of flour."

The adulteration of flour is probably not practised to any great extent in this land of cheap wheat. In books relating to the food of foreign countries, reference is always made to the admixture of the inferior sorts of grain, to mineral additions for increasing the weight, such as chalk or gypsum, and to the addition of alum or copper sulphate, in order to enable the baker to make whiter bread out of an inferior grade of flour. It is said that the gluten becomes softer and less elastic and tenacious when the flour has been over-heated in grinding, or if the heap of grain has been heated or fermented before grinding, and the

like. It is found that a little alum added to the flour seems to restore the tenacity of the gluten, and render the flour capable of making better and whiter bread.

Microscopic examination will serve to detect the

first class of adulteration, the amount of ash (which should not exceed one per cent) will indicate the second, and a careful chemical analysis will show the third. It must be remembered, however, that the husk of the kernel contains some alumina, so that a trace may always be found in the ash. If the flour contains any considerable quantity of alum, it will turn blue when moistened with a solution of logwood.

The proportion of gluten is of great importance, if the flour is to make up a large portion of the diet of a family. The following method of determining it is given by Dietzsch (p. 173). A portion of flour weighing one hundred grams is made up to a stiff paste with forty to fifty grams of water, allowed to stand half an hour, placed in a cloth, and kneaded under a stream of running water until the water no longer comes through milky. The yellowish elastic residue should weigh, when moist, from thirty to thirty-five grams; when dry, fifteen to eighteen grams. If the paste stands three hours instead of half an hour, the residue is said to be some three per cent more.

The testing of flour in the barrel is, like tea-tasting, an acquired art. Only long practice can enable one to judge with certainty of the quality of flour by its

shade of yellow, or its mode of caking when pressed, etc. The importance of good flour can hardly be over-estimated, since upon good bread depends the health of the greater part of the human race in all temperate climates.

BUCKWHEAT.

Buckwheat does not belong to the grasses or cereals, but to the family Polygonacea, which includes rhubarb and dock. It grows as far north as 72°, and thus stands next to barley. It matures very quickly, - in one hundred days, and thrives on

sandy soil. It is probably a native of Western Asia, and is largely grown in temperate countries. The seed, when stripped of its indigestible husk, which composes about twenty per cent of it, is rich in food material.

STARCHES, ETC.

The prepared starches are purified, so that they contain little else than pure starch, and thus are not capable of sustaining life by themselves. Starch may be derived from the cereal grains mentioned above, or from tubers or roots, as the potato, arrowroot, and

manihot or yucca, which yields farina and tapioca, and from the stems of plants, as the sago palm.

Corn starch is much used in the United States as an article of diet. Farina is another name for a preparation from the starch of maize or wheat, which now takes the place of the farina of manihot.

Genuine macaroni and vermicelli are made from wheat rich in gluten, and hence are exceedingly nutritious. Imitations are made from flour colored with saffron, or other yellow coloring-matter.

Arrowroot is derived from plants of the genus Maranta, of the West India Islands and tropical America, the chief species being M. arundinacea. The earliest recorded notice of the plant, the knowledge of which was obtained from South American Indians, refers to the supposed virtue possessed by its roots as an antidote to poisoned arrows; and it probably derives its name from this. Arrowroot was introduced into England about the beginning of this century; but its use has been largely superseded by that of corn starch.

IV.

MILK, BUTTER, CHEESE.

MILK.

HE milk of animals has been used as human food

THE

from time immemorial. In early ages it was the milk of goats, asses, etc., which was common; now however, cow's milk is used all over the world.

Milk is often called the perfect food, since it contains all the elements necessary for nutrition, and in the right proportions. One of the greatest advances in modern medicine, as well as in wholesome living, is the recognition of milk as an article of diet, especially for invalids, young people, and fever patients. Most persons can digest it when a little lime water is added, if it does not suit them without it. It is essential, however, that the milk supplied be of good quality, and from healthy, well-fed animals.

Public attention is now being called to the quality of milk purchased, and it is to be hoped that vigi