The Story of a Loaf of BreadWood, T. B. (Thomas Barlow)
Science
The Story of a Loaf of Bread
Wood, T. B. (Thomas Barlow)
Bread; Wheat
This question has been definitely answered by the work of the Home
Grown Wheat Committee during the last 12 years. The committee
collected strong wheats from every country where they are produced,
and grew them in England. From the first crop they picked out single
plants of every type represented in the mixed produce, for strong
wheats as imported are usually grades and not pure varieties. From the
single plants they have established pure strains of which they have
grown enough to mill and bake. From most of the strong wheats they
were unable to find any strain which would produce strong wheat in
England. Thus the strong wheat of Hungary when grown in England was
no stronger than any of the ordinary typical home grown wheats. But
from the strong wheat of Canada was isolated the variety known as Red
Fife, which makes up a very large proportion of the higher grades of
American and Canadian wheats, and this variety when grown in England
was found to continue to produce wheat as strong as the best Canadian.
Year after year it has been grown here, and when milled and baked its
strength has been found to be 100 or thereabouts on the scale above
described. Finally it was found that a strain of Red Fife which had
been brought over from Canada 20 years ago, and grown continuously in
the western counties ever since, under the name of Cook’s Wonder, was
still producing wheat which when ground and baked possessed a strength
of about 100. Thus it was conclusively proved that in the case of
Red Fife at any rate the English climate was capable of producing
really strong wheat. The strength of Hungarian and Russian wheats
appear to be dependent on the climate of those countries. Red Fife,
however, produces strong wheat wherever it is grown. It is interesting
to note that this variety although first exploited in Canada and the
States is really of European origin. It was taken out to Canada by an
enterprising Scotchman called Fife in a mixed sample of Dantzig wheat.
He grew it for some time and distributed the seed. Pure strains have
from time to time been selected by the American and Canadian experiment
stations.
But the discovery that Red Fife would produce strong wheat in England
by no means solved the problem, for when the Home Grown Wheat Committee
distributed seed of their pure strain of that variety for extended
testing throughout the country, it was soon found to be only a poor
yielder except in a few districts. A yield of three quarters of strong
grain, even if it makes 40_s._ per quarter on the market, only gives to
the farmer a return of £6 per acre, as compared with a return of nearly
£8 from 4½ quarters of weak grain worth 35_s._ per quarter, which can
usually be obtained by growing Square Head’s Master, or some other
standard variety.
[Illustration:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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