The percentage of water, the natural moisture as it is usually called, varies greatly in the wheats of different countries. In home grown wheats it is usually 16 per cent., but in very dry seasons it may be much lower, and in wet seasons it may rise to 18 per cent. Foreign wheats are usually considerably drier than home grown wheats. In Russian wheats 12 per cent. is about the average, and that too is about the figure for many of the wheats from Canada, the States, Argentina, and parts of Australia. Indian wheats sometimes contain less than 10 per cent. This is also about the percentage in the wheats of the arid lands on the Pacific coast and in Australia. These figures show that home grown wheats often contain as much as 5 per cent. more water than the foreign wheats imported from the more arid countries. The more water a wheat contains the less flour it will yield in the mill. Consequently the less its value to the miller. A difference of 5 per cent. of natural moisture means a difference in price of from 1_s._ 6_d._ to 2_s._ per quarter in favour of the drier foreign wheats. This is one of the reasons why foreign wheats command a higher price than those grown in this country. Turning to the third factor which determines the quality of wheat from the miller’s point of view, we may for the present define strength as the capacity for making bread which suits the public taste of the present day. We shall discuss this point more fully when we deal with the baking of bread. At present the only generally accepted method of determining the strength of a sample of wheat is to mill it and bake it, usually into cottage loaves. The strength of the wheat is then determined from their size, shape, texture, and general appearance. A really strong flour makes a large, well risen loaf of uniformly porous texture. Wheats lacking in strength are known as weak. A weak wheat makes a small flat loaf. In order to give a numerical expression to the varying degrees of strength met with in different wheats, the Home Grown Wheat Committee of the National Association of British and Irish Millers have adopted a scale as the result of many thousand milling and baking tests. On their scale the strength of the best wheat imported from Canada, graded as No. 1 Manitoban, or from the States graded as No. 1 Hard Spring, is taken as 100, that of the well-known grade of flour known as London Households as 80, and that of the ordinary varieties of home grown wheat, such as Square Head’s Master, Browick, Stand Up, etc., as 65. The strength of most foreign wheats falls within these limits. Thus the strength of Ghirka wheat from Russia is about 85, of Choice White Karachi from India 75, of Plate River wheat from the Argentine 80, etc. The strongest of all wheats is grown in certain districts in Hungary. It is marked above 100 on the scale, but it is not used for bread making. The soft wheats from the more arid regions in Australia and the States are usually weaker than