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Wheat Biscuit" in 1895. This product contains every portion of the wheat kernel. The whole wheat is cooked without being flavored, and then mechanically ground into filaments. It is formed into miniature loaves and baked. The distinctiveness of this food has always been retained and has never been successfully imitated. It stands in a class by itself and is in great favor with American consumers.

The great development of the breakfast food industry has centered at Battle Creek, Michigan. John H. Kellogg patented "Cranose Flakes" in 1895. It consisted of the whole wheat, which was cooked, slightly flavored with salt, rolled into thin flakes, and baked. It was the first flaked wheat food that met with considerable sale. Charles W. Post began the manufacture of "Grape Nuts" in 1896. This product is made from wheat and barley ground together into flour, baked into bread, toasted, and finally crushed to granular form. The food is distinguished by its hardness, its amber color, and its large percentage of dextrine. The products "Malta Vita" and "Ready Bits" were the result of experiments conducted at Battle Creek in 1898. The former consisted of cleansed whole wheat seasoned with salt, and treated with malt extract for the predigestion of starches before it was finally baked. "Force," brought out a few months later, was manufactured in a similar manner. "Ready Bits" was not perfected until 1903. "Its form is distinctive, consisting of readhering particles of disintegrated cooked wheat, from which the excess starch has been removed by the use of an enzyme.' All of these three foods attained national distribution. By 1903 at least 50 undistinctive brands of ready-to-serve wheat flakes were upon the market, and nearly all of them were made from whole wheat cooked, salted, rolled and baked. Their merit depended upon the quality of the material and the care and skill used in their preparation. Their success was proportional to the vigor and intelligence with which they were advertised. The total annual output of ready-to-serve wheat foods was estimated to have a value of $11,000,000.

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In 1903, 18,191 families were visited in a house-to-house canvass of the city of New Haven, Connecticut. Seventy-six per cent were found to be users of ready-to-eat cereal foods. The number of the families of the different nationalities who

were users and non-users of these cereal foods appears in the table below:1

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2

The analysis of some of the leading ready-to-serve wheat foods indicates the following average percentages of constituent substances:

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Cereal breakfast foods have been more extensively and ingeniously advertised than any other class of foods. Such a bewildering variety is upon the market that it is difficult to make an intelligent choice between them. They are very convenient data concerning ready-to-serve wheat foods, the writer is indebted to Mr Burritt Hamilton, formerly President of the Ready Bits Company.

1 For all of the preceding

2 U. S. Dept. Agr., Farm Bul. 105, p. 20.

for use and give a pleasant variety in food. It is claimed, however, that "at the usual prices the nutrients in ready-toeat cereals are considerably dearer than those furnished by bread and crackers." Where strict economy is not essential, the special convenience and variety is often considered to be worth the additional cost.

During the first few years of the twentieth century, the most active competition prevailed between the numerous companies manufacturing ready-to-serve breakfast foods. Events in this business happened with kaleidoscopic rapidity. During the years of 1902 and 1903 there was an overproduction of cereal foods which caused a protracted glut in the market. Many of the younger companies were unable to continue in the business, and failed. The survivors are now doing a satisfactory business, and the making of cereal foods has settled down to a staple milling industry.

The Natural Food Company, the present manufacturer of shredded wheat, has a conservatory overlooking Niagara Falls. It is one of the finest food factories in the world. Power is furnished by electricity from the Falls, and the total cost of the building and equipment was $2,000,000. The united structure covers an area of 55,653 square feet. It has 5.5 acres of floor space, and a frontage of 900 feet on the upper Niagara Rapids. Educational features have been established, and there is an auditorium, seating over 1000, for entertainments, lectures, and conventions. Its food has been a great commercial success, and is one of the best selling products on the American market today. Some of its products are also exported.

Grape Nuts is an unpatented food. The manufacturing company relies on its trade marks for protection. By vigorous advertising it has created an extensive demand for its goods in the United States and in some foreign countries.

"From 100,000 to 125,000 one-pound packages are put up daily, representing a daily consumption of 1,500,000 of portions. In the manufacture of Postum Food Coffee and Grape Nuts about 2,200 bushels of wheat are consumed daily. These two products are mostly used by the English speaking race, but are being gradually introduced in all the commercial centers of the world. Stocks of both products are carried in all the prominent cities of the United States, Canada and England. Some 625 male and female employes find employment throughout dif

magnesia, bone, and various clays. Alum in any form is harmful and the use of the others is reprehensible, for they often make a poor bread seem good. The addition up to 20 per cent of cornstarch can be used with high glutinous flours, but it produces a much drier loaf, lacking flavor. Terra alba has been widely used for adulteration in foreign countries, but at least as late as 1894 there was no knowledge of its having been used in the United States. Mineraline, one of its forms, was, however, subsequently used. The poorer classes of people sometimes adulterate the flour themselves. For example, it is said that the Scandinavian peasants at times mix half flour and half ground tree bark in their loaf. In the United States, an internal-revenue tax was levied on mixed flour by the war-revenue act of 1898. It largely stopped the mixing of cornstarch or corn flour with wheat flour, a practice that had been frequent. Wheat Products as Animal Food.—All of the grain of wheat which is unfit for flour is generally fed to animals. Wheat that finds poor sale for any reason, as for example goose wheat and durum wheat in former times, is often fed to stock. In times of very low prices, even the bread wheats are extensively fed. During 1893 over four million bushels, or 16.5 per cent of the total wheat crop of Kansas, were fed to farm animals. Authorities, however, do not seem to be agreed as to the value of wheat for feeding. For certain feeding purposes it seems to have advantages over corn and other grains, while for other purposes it has disadvantages. It should generally be fed with other grains, and its food value is slightly increased by grinding. Wheat should not form more than half the grain ration. All classes of domestic animals are fond of wheat in any form.

1 Letter, Postum Cereal Co., Ltd.
2 Industrial Commission, 11:2.

Growing wheat is often pastured in the fall or spring. At times this can be done without injury. On the Pacific coast as much as 10 per cent of the wheat is sometimes cut green for the purpose of making wheat hay. This practice is often followed in Oregon. After the wheat is threshed the straw is often used as fodder in the United States, and also in other countries.

Other Uses of Wheat Straw. In the time of Fitzherbert wheat straw was used in England to thatch houses. In the Old World some varieties of wheat are grown solely for making hats and other articles of plaited straw. It is also used for various other purposes, such as packing merchandise and making mattresses and door-mats. Another great use is in paper mills, where it is at times bought at $3 to $4 per ton. Efforts have been made in this manner to save some of the straw that is going to waste at the rate of millions of tons per year in North Dakota. The problem of using wheat straw economically is no nearer solution than it was 20 years ago. In the Northwest and on the Pacific coast it is often worse than useless, because it must be burned to get it out of the way.

The Per Capita Consumption of Wheat is not an index to the bread consumption of countries where rye bread is used. Including the amount required for seed, the estimated per capita consumption in the United States for 1902 to 1904 inclusive was 6.23 bushels. The following estimate of the per capita consumption of wheat in certain countries was presented to the British Royal Commission on Supply of Food and Raw Material in Time of War, by Mr. W. S. Patterson of the Liverpool Corn Trade Association.

PER CAPITA CONSUMPTION OF WHEAT

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