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18
THE STORY OF BREAD
HAS ALWAYS BEEN MOST STA
PLE FOOD OF MAN
B read, the. lowly and yet
the most substantial food
of the race has been the
subject of much com
ment at the Base Hospital
since the detachment and the pati
ent’s messes have been reduced to
one slice of wheat bread per meal.
The order went into effect because
of the latest request from Washing
ton which asked that strict conserva
tion of wheat bread be maintained.
Most of the soldiers in discussing
the bread question think only of the
amount of bread-stuff that' they them
selves consume.. They do not con
sider the army of men necessary for
the productionn of the grain and the
making of that food and because of
this the necessity of saving every
possible crumb. It is estimated that
the labor of scores and scores of peo
ple is lost by the pure waste of bread
in the army camps each day. This
is an especially important factor now
because of the scarcity of labor.
It is known that there is none too
much wheat in the possession of the
Allies and America at this time.
Since the enemy has been whipped
and it is necessary to feed him, the
drain on the supply is going to be
greater. There was never a time
when bread is so important, so vital
to the race as it is now. There has
never been a time during the long war
when it was necessary that food con
servation be practiced as carefully as
now. .
But this article is to deal with the
story in a loaf of bread. Anxious
moments during the year just past,
when it seemed hardly possible that
enough of our scanty stores of bread-
stuffs could be spared to maintain our
took a long step forward. The peo-
as the savage turned to peaceful agri
culture to supply this necessity he
Allies, have brought home to people
generally the vital importance o£
bread to mankind. No other food has
taken so great a- part in the civiliza
tion of the race; the progress of na
tions may be traced by the quality and
quantity of bread they have used, and
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THE CADUCEUS
pies of the earth may be divided intoThis process is repeated in th© “puri-
two classes, bread eaters and rice
eaters, and the former are the lead
ers. Japan, once a rice eating nation,
has varied her diet as she has become .
great.
The old word “bray” meant to
pound, and food so treated was said
to be brayed, the spelling of which
has been changed to give us the mod
em bread. The original meaning of
"dough’’ was to moisten, this being
the second step in jireparlng the grain
for food. An accident showed that
dough, left to ferment, could br mixed
with other dough atid caus it to
swell and become porous. ' Liflan”
meant to raise up cr lift, and from
it we get “loaf.”
Wheat, queen of cereals, was dis
covered before the dawn of history;
it is mentioned in the Bi’ole and was
cultivated the Chinese as early as
2,700 B. C. Its ancestor is said to
have been a grass, but there is no
record of wheat growing wild.
Its grain has several coverings of
bran coats, the outer being composed
of silica, the substance of which grass
is made. Beneath is the dark glut
en which contains the nitrogenous
elements valuable in flesh and muscle
building, while the heart consists of
cells filled with white starch, a great
heat producer but of little value as
food. When the entire grain of wheat.
Including the outer cover of silica,
is ground up fine we have what is
known as Graham flour, the most nu
tritious, containing all the grain ex
cept the outside covering. When the
latter and also the heart of the grain
are removed, gluten flour is produc
ed—ordinary white, or boiled flour
and Its by-products. In the separa
tors, coarse grains, corn and oats
and imperfect kernels are removed
After passing through the “scouring
machine.’’ where it is cleaned from
dust and dirt, the wheat is “tempered”
so that the outer covering may be
easily taken off. Next it passes be
tween five different sets of rollers,
each of which crushes it to a finer
powder.
The bolting process consists of a
series of sieves, .which sift the grain
after each breaking in the rolls. The
bolter machine contains a number of
sieves covered with silk bolting cloth,
each with meshes of diffe’-ent size,
and which makes from eight to ten ij
different preparations of the material. -■«
fiers,” where a current of air draws
all impurities out. Finally the mass
of broken grain is mechanically sepa
rated into five different grades of
“middlings” and is ready for the
smooth rolls.
The flour next goes to large round
bins of hard wood, beneath which are
automatic devices, which accurateiy
pack it into barrels and bags of vari
ous size. The precious wheat is now
fit to be baked into bread.
The next time, lad., you have a
piece of bread on your plate that you
are considering throwing in the gar
bage can, think of this story of bread
and its making.
Say dat am a mighty fine looking
donkey dat yo’ brother had wid him
down on de street de oder night.
Yo’ are correct, dat was one fine
animal.
Who been own de donkey?
Mah brother owns him.
Ih’Il bet dat he call him after de
president, don’ he?
No, he’d neber do nofln like’o dat
cause he sure thinks too much ob
President Wilson,
Ah sure hope dat he ain’t narned
him after de Kaiser or nothing like
dem Germans?
Wrong again, he thinks too much
ob de mule.
A hundred years from now the fact
that your discharge papers were de
layed will mean nothing in your life.
GOOD NIGHT
The
GIiarlotteLaundry
Does Our Wort
Who Does Yonrs?
THE
Rembrandt Studio
27 SOUTH TRYON ST.
One oi the oldest and
best in the city
The name Rembrandt on your
Photographs is worth
something
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