Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/547

This page needs to be proofread.
*
461
*

WHEAT. 461 WHEAT. to 2,586,025,000 bushels. Of this amount Europe supplied 1,475,472,000 bushels. The total crop of the United States in 1809, according to the Twelfth Census, was 058,534,252 bushels, which was produced on 52.588,574 acres, or at an average rate of 12.5 bushels per acre. In 1898 the United States jiniduced over 075,000,000 bushels, tlie largest crop ever produced. The chief wheat-growing States and their production in 1899 as given l)y the Twelfth Census were: Minnesota, 95.279.000 bushels; North Dakota, 59,888,810 bushels; Ohio. .50..370,800 bu.shels; and South Dakota, 41,880,380 bushels. Kansas, Cali- fornia, and Indiana in descending order of product produced over 30,000,000 busliols, and Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, Washington, Pennsylvania, and Michigan 20,000,000 bishels. The' progress of wheat cultivation in the Western States has been extremely rapid, due to the increase in wheat culture in previously unsettled regions. In 1821 the total exports of wheat from the tl)e miller as 'bran. 'which forms about 13 per cent. of the seed by weight. The innermost layer of the bran, averaging about 8 ))er cent, of the entire seed, contains cerealin or aleurone, a nitrogenous substance. The bulk of the .seed within this layer consists of starch, nitrogenous substances (espe- cially gluten), and fat. Wheat flour of various sorts is used almost universally for making bread and various kinds of ])astry. From wheat rich in gluten, macaroni and other Italian pastes are made. These .-ire common articles of diet in most countries, and staple articles in some, notably Italy. In recent years the consumption of breakfast foods made from wheat has increased very greatly. In some of these the grain is more or less finely grouiul ; in others it is rolled or flaked. Some of these foods are cooked in the process of manufacture. Cereal breakfast foods are also made from the parched grain. The average composition of wheat and some of it.s products is shown in the following table: Composition of Wheat, FLotia, Bbead and Otbeb PRODncTa Water Protein Fat Carbohydrates Ash Starch, etc. Crude fibre (Average values). "Wlieat as itenters the mill Per cent. 9.66 8.23 7.66 10.91 12.12 8.75 11.4 11.3 11.9 12.8 12.4 12.0 10.55 10.49 10.54 10.13 10.08 9.17 8.73 9.99 10.81 8.61 8.60 36.3 35.7 38.4 6.8 8.6 10.1 8.7 10.3 Per cent. 14.18 14.18 16.28 10.28 16.63 33.25 13.8 13.3 13.3 10.8 11.2 14.0 11.08- 11.14 11.99 13.74 15.03 18.98 14.87 14.02 12.20 12.65 12.65 9.2 8.9 9.7 10.7 13.6 11.1 13.4 13.4 Per cent. 2.61 2.68 6.34 6.03 3.85 16.61 1.9 2.2 1.6 1.1 1.0 1.9 1.15 1.20 1.61 2.20 3.77 7.00 6.37 4.39 2.2'. 2.44 2.36 1.3 1.8 0.9 8.8 2.4 1.7 1.4 0.9 Per cent. 69.94 71., 56 69.42 66.21 63.93 35.19 71.0 70.5 72.0 74.6 74.7 70.4 P er cent. 1.70 1.62 6.60 6.98 1.18 1.75 0.9 0.6 0.7 0.2 0.2 0.8 Per cent. 1.91 1.73 Sixth break 6.08 6.59 Tailings from reduction No. 5 2.29 5.45 1.0 1.8 Patent roller process flour: o.n 0.6 0.6 0.9 MilliiiK iToihiotsfrom same lot of hard Scotch fltcHpriiifj: wheat: First pattMit flour 76. R5 0.37 76.75 75.36 73.13 69.37 61.37 65.47 65.54 73.67 74.68 74.69 53.1 52.1 49.7 71.9 74.5 75.5 74.3 74.1 0.42 Straifiht or staiuiard patent flour 0.50 O.,S0 1.75 3.48 4.. 56 6.06 1.02 1.72 Wheat 1.80 White bread 1.1 1.5 1.3 1.8 0.9 1.6 2.2 1.3 United States were valued at $178,314, and of wheat) flour at $4,298,043; in 1000. $73,237,080 and $07,700,880, respectively. The largest aver- age yield of wheat per acre is produced by Great Britain, followed by Germany, France, Hungary, Austria, the United States, and Russia, in the order mentioned. In total yield the United States leads all other countries. The most common diseases to which wheat is subject are riist ( Piircinia firfiminis) , stinking smut, or bunt {Tilletia fcctens). and black or loose smut {Uxfihirio frifici) (see Ru.sT; Smuts; FuNCiciDE). and the most common insect enemies are the chinch bug and the Hessian fly (qq.v.) . Food V.LrE. The wheat grain consi.sts mainly of a large starchy mass surrounding an embryo and surrounded bv six layers of tissue, known to As shown by analyses, the difTei'ent sorts of flour do not vary very, greatly when ground from the same lot of wheat., although the amount of mineral matter and protein is somewhat larger in the whole wheat and Graham flour than in the higher-grade flour. Digestion experiments with healthy men have shown that the fine-flour bread is more digestible than the breads made from the coarser grain. The average coefficients of three sorts of bread made from flours ground from the same lot of wheat, obtained experimentally by Snyder, are stated in the table on p. 402. It has been calculated that wheat-flour bread' and crackers, pastrv, and similar products con- stitute 19 per cent, of the total food of the average American family, furnishing about 27 per cent, of the total protein, 6 per cent, of the