HOME-CROWN WHEAT.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10783, 3 June 1911, Page 6

HOME-CROWN WHEAT.

(Bv "ft". Beach Thomas.,)

It i- a melioration and more Knji>h farmer* received even a fair in iri*' i i>rieo for their wheat-. It has been'marked down on the ground that j i- L was ii'.t oi good milling quality. ! -• i ; ri' H( vk> "crab" wheat : has been vastly accelerated i },<• j«i•"ri*•, Kir sno'.v-whito flour con- ! starch. ,T'"- change ha- aiivadv <>. Within the la.se- ■ fortnight wle ai :-.a.-> oei-ii 3d d<. nr.-: - and torei-n wheat a, -i'l <iieaucr. It i- dithcult to exaggerate tilt' iniportauve oi Mich ii »a<-t. Til*- i.uMir- «"■. ' ['!•■'! ..b-.n! a gen-ration ago chat th.-y would :rvat tueinM-lves internally much a* ih-.u i.ii; <» » oi their .stitt siiirt^: and undoubtedly starch Irom v.-h«.at blc-acn».•> 1' >- perfectlv than i"p-i'_rn tlour. i-arinw-themselves have always perceived the harm inflicted on themselves by tin, suicidal mania in the public who should be their custom.-r,. »n«i tliej ' recognised the new' jsro.-pwi opened > tlie lioalth campaign m iavor ot ;-iandard bread. It is a lanners verdict that "nothing lias done hncdi-h ianam_ so pood a turn lor a u ', This farmer is senain- his wheat to ... stone mill and is going to supply all hi* laborers, of whom he emp.oy.- i : . wiu. flour at cost price. whicn \wtl =-» them -l'-d a stone on the price they ■ " pavhig to-day. He has arrived at fibres by an experiment- with eJ bushels of French wheat, ln'-i jbushels, weighing 3.. stone or • ic-'t. produced -J I stone oi Hour. 8 .-tone oi bran, and 4 stone of sharps. Bv a most happy accident the no < belief in standard bread has ar " - crisis in farm routine. The ordinary I rotation has been suddenly int f" l ? t^ e I Largely owing to the mct-or-car and . decrease in horses oats are I more or less unsaleable, or, at anj_r. , nn unprofitable crop- One of the big Norfolk farmers has in consequence decided to reduce his oat crop by 60 per cent ind sow wheat m its place, if the o"toi t-Jg-z, ?£: IC inent In common with otJi er . „;,rs in his district lie £ enthusiastic in behalf of standard bread that he is I" innine a personal campaign in his. own locality to persuade the people of itS ln d his nt r?ew its acceptance by the mr-il community would mean the • rival at a new level of prosperity in rural England. IF thought in England were not "urbanised" - to an absurd extent the community would long ago hive forced attention to the degradation of-English wheat. "With local mills at work, adding to rural employment, j 'with the pavment of a proper price for English wheat, ensnnng-an extra f ™fit of several shillings a qnarter we should have a more real reconstruction of rural life to which Small Holding, and other Acts are as nothing. .. ■_ The present state of things m the flour trade is very curious. In one town in the Eastern Counties which possesses a mill I found that the-chief seller *of flour fetched liis supplies from Hull, from bigger and ipore Pf«ect mills set up, as fashion has dictated, in a seaport town most suitable to foreign importers. No doubt this sort of absurditv is found in other departments of producing. I remember discovering with surprised disgust that a. greengrocer in Newbury, in Berkshire, got his vegetables, some foreign grown, from Covent Garden. This establishment of big mills at the ports is due, of course, to the vast amount of foreign corn which we must import; but it would never have been followed by the extinction of the smaller null and the depreciation of English wheat in relation to foreign unless a mad :sire tor white bread, and the parti"; starvation it entailed, had not overwhelmed the community. For- beyond all question English • «i«-i makes better bread than foreig-i wheat, if the flour is not desic-cp-eO* and pauperised and demoralised of its proper virtues. Farmers themselves have always understood this. I know many who have consistently made their own bread at home of their _own flour because they had discovered by experiment that cream-colored bread or brown bread made of the damper English wheat was the best. The preference for the foreign wheat, grown in quicker time under hotter suns, is due first to the fact that a greater proportion of water can Be added to it; secondly, to the fact that its flour is less white if onlv the starch in the grain is used. But these virtues are really vices. In the first place, this added water has less virtue than the natural moisture held in the English grain. In the second, the whiter the flour, the less the flavor, the savor._ the nourishment, and the degree of digestion. The whole question of the depreciation or degradation of English wheatis curious and unexpected. Tlie history shows how very capriciously works the supposed law that prices depend on demand and supply: liow persistently circumstances have worked afsainst home production: how seriously the has suffered from the farmers' "un-"" earned decrement." The sequel. it. is. to be hoped, will prove that English wheat, on which the prosperity of rural England principally demands, will return to a common-sense use of the full grain for human food. _ -- Our farmers have been punished every way. More and more of the mills have been erected at the seaports, so that the English grain has to he carried farther —if distance be judged by expense —than foreign grain. The great importers of grain have been able to make" advantageous bargains, while English farmers, bargaining individually and producing crops rather more irregular ill quality than the foreign wheat, have been at the mercy of the purchaser. Finally, the comparative value of English wheat has been under-estimated both in theory and practice, because only the starchy part of the grain was used, for breadmaking. "When any new wheat is produced—the French wheats are a good example—it is said that they are bad milling wheats, are "weak," do not make a big loaf. The ideals of the miller and the farmer have been directly opposed. Tlie miller wants "strength," » wheat of the dry. almost transparent, I look, which the hot suns of the quick I and dry northern harvests impart. What tlie farmer wants is yield. He finds that he receives very little more for bis ''strong" wheats than his "weak": certainly not nearly enough to make up for the difference of a quarter or even half a quarter in yield. It is no good to a farmer to grow four quarters of red .Fife when lie can grow six of Marvel- Even if he got 4s a quarter more for the Fife lie would be something like £3 an acre out of pocket by fits preference for Fife quality over Marvel quantity. How great the benefit to farming will be depends very largely on the country population. Richard Jefferies once said that- the agricultural laborer would never be persuaded to eat brown bread. Standard bread is not- brown, so that his prophecy may be disregarded. Laborers are more slow to alter their way of diet than any class in the community; but they begin to adopt the better food, and with their allegiance to health bread the fortune of the local mill and the "marking up" cf English wheat are assured. A small local instance of the effect of the campaign may be quoted to illustrate "the return of tlie mill." A .number of old French milling stones were recently sold for 10s apiece. The other day ail but the best pair, which were retained, were sold at £9 apiece.