Bread Grain Research Articles

Milling, Baking, and Chemical Properties of Marquis and Kanred Wheat Grown in Colorado and Stored 35 to 43 Years1

AbstractSamples of ‘Marquis,’ a spring wheat grown under irrigation, and ‘Kanred,’ a winter wheat grown on fallow land without irrigation, were stored in bags in a dry, unheated room at Fort Collins, Colo., for periods up to 43 years. In 1964, all samples failed to germinate after 35 to 43 years storage. Kanred decreased somewhat faster in percentage of germination for the various testing periods than Marquis, when lots harvested in the same years were compared. The grain varied from 10.4 to 11.3% in moisture content during storage. Test weights of the grain were slightly, but, in general, consistently lower in 1964 than in 1938. During this same time flour yield increased for all the wheats. The ash content of the wheats did not change, but the flour ash averaged consistently higher in lots drawn since 1938. A definite and fairly regular increase in fat acidity indicated progressive deterioration. In 1964, gassing‐power determinations on the flour showed increases in 5 of the 8 Marquis samples and in 2 of the 3 Kanred wheats when compared with 1938 tests. Five of the eight long‐time stored Marquis samples and all of the Kanred samples decreased significantly in sedimentation values during the 10‐year period after the first tests were made. Determinations made in 1964 indicate that some thiamine probably was lost during storage under the test conditions. The diastatic activity, as a measure of the maltose content, showed significant3 increases during the 10 years from 1954 to 1964. The quality of the bread from all samples, as judged by loaf volume, was lower than from samples taken in 1938. None of the differences, which are small, seem to be greater than might be expected when tests are made 26 years apart. The breads made in 1964 were not considered to be objectionable for human consumption. Scores for bread grain, texture, and crumb color, however, were lower than in the initial tests. Absorption increased significantly3 in the 1964 tests as compared to the lots drawn in 1938.

Agricultural Productivity and Economic Growth in England, 1700–1760: A Comment

In his recent article in this Journal, A. H. John has attempted to show how low grain prices in the first half of the eighteenth century stimulated economic growth. His argument runs that after the Restoration,…there followed almost a century of comparative plenty, bringing an increasing flow of food and raw materials. The most pronounced fall in prices occurred in grains … Because [the bread grains] entered very largely into the diet of most groups in society, a fall in their prices lowered the cost of living and so raised per capita real incomes …. Income tended to move into the hands of people, who, through habit and/or necessity, were more likely to spend than hoard …. Many of the growth points stemmed from a buoyant home market.

Swedish agricultural policy and agricultural production from 1930 to 1940

Abstract The world-wide economic depression, which began in the United States in the fall of 1929, had almost immediate consequences for agriculture even in Sweden. There was at first a pronounced fall in prices of vegetable products, especially bread grains. If the average prices of the years 1924–29 are placed equal to 100, the general index for vegetable products fell from a level of 105 in 1927–28 to 76 in 1929–30 and to 68 in 1932–33. In the beginning the prices of animal products proved to be more resistant. During 1931, however, they became involved in the general price decline, and in 1932–33 the general index for animal products reached the bottom level: 57.1 Nannesson, L., Jordbrukets driftsekonomiska förhållanden och lönsamheten under det senaste kvartsseklet. Sveriges Lantbruksförbund 1917–1942, Stockholm 1942, p. 257.

‘Corn’

In this country and in those with which we are best acquainted, that large part of the human diet which is derived from grain is mainly eaten in the form of bread. Bread, in order to be palatable and digestible, must be leavened; and this means that the dough must be able to retain some of the carbon dioxide gas produced in it by the agency of yeast or some similar substance. Its capacity for doing this depends upon the presence in the grain of a sufficient amount of proteins of such a kind that when mixed with water they form the elastic substance known as gluten. It is largely because wheat—and especially the species of triticum vulgare to which all our bread wheats belong—is superior to all other grains in this respect that wheat has become the main bread grain of a large part of the world.

International Programs and Agricultural Policy

International aid programs operating since 1941 have sent over $16 billion worth of U. S. agricultural products overseas. This represents nearly one-half of our total agricultural exports during this period of time. Since 1950, aid-financed farm exports have dropped from 60 per cent of the total to only 12 per cent (not including partial subsidies on wheat). Total agricultural exports declined about 30 per cent during 1952 and 1953 to the lowest dollar volume since 1946, and the lowest physical volume since 1944. See Table 1. There is now much concern in agricultural circles with ways in which farm exports can be maintained and expanded. These figures suggest the importance of international programs in providing a market for the expanded movement of farm products in the war and postwar decades. The food shipped has contributed to the rebuilding of morale and the capital structure in the foreign economies and to better nutrition among the recipients. But it has also been a powerful force for stimulating price increases in the United States market. Elmer Working, for example, has estimated the price impact in 1950 if food exports had been at the 1940 level.' In 1950 exports were 9.9 per cent of production compared with 2.3 per cent of 1935-39 production in 1940. Working estimates that if this 7.6 per cent additional exports had remained here as an increase in domestic supplies retail food prices would have decreased by about 30 per cent. This estimate of price change, of course, could be further refined into a combination of price declines and increases in CCC inventories. Suffice it to note that farmers have gained from the existence of these international aid programs, and the CCC's problems have been less acute. The impact of the programs have been concentrated on a few commodities. Approximately 40 per cent of the ECA expenditures for agricultural products were for cotton and tobacco (much of it flue-cured). Another 30 per cent was spent for bread grains, primarily wheat and wheat flour. About half of the total commodity expenditure authorized from April 3, 1948 to June 30, 1951, or $5 billion, was for agricultural products.2 Without question, wheat, cotton and tobacco producers have benefited from these programs. Wilfred Malenbaum has estimated that about 89 per cent of our recent wheat exports have involved U. S. government financing in whole or in part.3 Recent discussions of the two price

The distribution of amylase, proteinase and esterase in resting cereals: (Publication of the Committee for the investigation of bread grain and bread of the Ned. Voedingsorganisatie T.N.O.)

The distribution of amylase, proteinase and esterase in resting cereals: (Publication of the Committee for the investigation of bread grain and bread of the Ned. Voedingsorganisatie T.N.O.)

International Aspects of Postwar Food and Agriculture

FOOD supply is an issue of great international importance in the war, it must be the central factor in postwar relief, and it may be given first place in the plans of the United Nations to establish a better world. Since food is the source of human energy, it is the most important of the munitions of war. The effect of food shortages on German morale in World War I is well known. The Nazis determined to guard against any repetition of military failure through lack of food. They adapted German agriculture to war requirements and also accumulated large stocks of bread grains and of fats. Three successive poor harvests, together with a drain of manpower to the armies and to war industries, have now faced Germany and German-occupied Europe with the prospect of a repetition of the food story of 1917-18. The immense bulk of food required to sustain armies and civilian populations suggests that international control of stocks of cereals and fats might be used by the future World Authority to form an important part of the measures taken to guard against the outbreak of

A New Pathological Condition of Probable Dietetic Origin in Rats.

It has recently been observed in this laboratory, that when young or mature rats, of both sexes, which have been on the laboratory stock diet (milk, white bread and mixed grains) are transferred to individual cages with screen bottoms and are fed on an artificial food mixture, consisting of 18% casein (A and B free, British Drug Houses), 78% corn starch and 4% McCollum's salt mixture, they develop, in the majority of cases, within 8 to 10 days, peculiar tail symptoms. These symptoms start with a slight segmentation of the distal end of the tail, followed by a more accentuated constriction, reddening of the segment, sometimes bleeding, necrosis and falling off of the tail tip. As the experiment proceeds the segmentation and the process extends.It has been thought first, that the symptoms present an analogy with the deficiency disease described by Burr and Burr.1 However, the following reasons speak in favor of a new pathological entity. The disease observed by us develops much earlier and is neither preven...

New Bread Grain Provisions in Switzerland

New Bread Grain Provisions in Switzerland