BAKING QUALITY OF WHEAT

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 77, 24 December 1928, Page 10

BAKING QUALITY OF WHEAT

RESEARCH WORK IN NEW ZEALAND

Dominion Special Service.

Christchurch, December 21.

In an address recently to a gathering of farmers at Oust, Dr. F. W. Hiigendorf, who is in charge of the Wheat Research Institute, made some remarks of a technical nature in regard to the unsuitability of certain qualities of wheat to meet with modern processes of bread-making. The headings given to Dr. Hllgendorf’s remarks in various newspapers give an entirely Wrong construction to Dr. Hilgerdorf’s remarks, and he forwards the following statement: “My attention has been drawn to the fact that a statement I made at the Farmers’ Union meeting at Oust on November 30 has been somewhat misunderstood. I had explained .the kinds of wheat breeding work being done at Lincoln College, and said that while at first the whole object of breeding had been to increase the’ yield, we had, for several years past, been breeding for quality as well. . The baking quality of a wheat was of great importance, and the first work of the wheat research laboratory would he to investigate the qualities of various wheats, because all the wheats grown in New Zealand were not suitable for making bread by certain modern processes associated with short fermentation periods and mechanical manipulation. This has been interpreted in some quarters to mean that every New Zealand wheat is unsuitable for these special processes, and even to mean that New Zealand wheats, as a whole, are unsuitable for making bread of any kind at all.” ‘

“To give such impresisons as these,” said Dr. Hilgerdorf, “was far from my intention. It is well known that wheats grown in any country vary in quality with the variety and locality, and some of our New Zealand wheats are unexcelled for the yield and the baking quality of the flour they produce. It is our object to bring all our wheats up to the standard of the best, and although counting quality and quantity per acre together our wheat is as valuable as any in the world, we recognise that there is always room for improvement. Farmers, mijlers and bakers, through their Research Institute, are striving after that improvement by every means known to modern science.”