BREAD TRADE

Grey River Argus, 9 January 1941, Page 9

BREAD TRADE

Now in Danger (To the Editor.) Sir, —I have read your item in today’s issue of the “Argus” regarding “Germs in Bread,” and, as one uno has had a lifetime of baking, I am led to wonder when the good o.dtime loaf will entirely disappear. Today, with the new varieties of bread, the “germs,” and all kinds of improvers,” a s well as green flours, the bread trade is itself in danger. Forty-live years ago I purchased the world’s best Hour for £6 per ion. To-day we are paying over £l5 lor green flour! , ~ v The wheat farmers, Sir, shornd be compelled to stook their wheat, as in former years; instead of cutting and sending 'it directly to the mills. "The New Zealand climate will not suit that treatment. The authorities are placing germs and all kinds of improvers on the market to balance the weakness existing as the result of the practice which, as I have said, should be discontinued by the farmers. Such weakness in bread or wheat as mat mentioned, which the germs and improvers are alleged to balance, should not be allowed. Good Hour, yeast, salt and water, are all that are required. Consider, Sir, the health of those whose bread used to be of the sort made precisely from good flour, yeast, salt and water; and compare with that health standard the physical condition of people to-day who use the novel forms of bread which have replaced the old-time variety. About fifty years ago the population in our mining towns round about Lite district would compare in numbers with the present population of the district. Well, the Grey Hospital fifty years ago was like a lighthouse! There were then at the institution one Surgeon <Dr. Morice, on e of the best), one Night Pori or (Peter Massey), one Day Porter (William Bell), one Cook-Laundress (Mrs. Roff) and a gardener (Mr. Peterson). The patents then numbered just about one dozen. But today the Hospital is like a veritable township! Times indeed have changed, and the people have changed with them —but none for the better. All are drifting. Open competition amongst, wheat farmers is what is wanted--not nursed farmers. Then the quality will come back to the same good standard as before the wheat r«Jsearch started. Bread made from good flour and whole meal i s all the body required—not. “germs” or “improvers” of any kind.—-I am, etc., P. BLANCHFIELD, SENR, i Greymouth, January Bth.