the least gluten and the most starch; it is the part which first pulverizes
under the stone, and gives, after the first bolting, the fine flour. As
this flour is poorest in gluten, it makes a dough with little consistency,
and incapable of making an open bread, well raised. The first layer, No.
8, which surrounds the center, produces small white middlings, harder and
richer in gluten than the center; it bakes very well, and weighs 20 lb. in
100, and it is these 20 parts in 100 which, when mixed with the 50 parts in
the center, form the finest quality flour, used for making white bread.

The layer No. 7, which surrounds the preceding one, is still harder and
richer in gluten; unfortunately in the reduction it becomes mixed with some
hundredth parts of the bran, which render it unsuitable for making bread
of the finest quality; it produces in the regrinding lower grade and
dark flours, together weighing 7 per cent. The external layer, naturally
adhering to the membrane, No. 6, becomes mixed in the grinding with bran,
to the extent of about 20 per cent., which renders it unsuitable even
for making brown bread; it serves to form the regrindings and the offals
destined for the nourishment of animals; this layer is, however, the
hardest, and contains the largest quantity of gluten, and it is by
consequence the most nutritive. We now see the endosperm increasing from
the center, formed of floury layers, which augment in richness in gluten,
in proportion as they are removed from the center. Now, as the flours make
more bread in proportion to the quantity of gluten they contain, and the
gluten gives more bread in proportion to its being more developed, or
having more consistence, it follows that the flour belonging to the parts
of the berry nearest the envelopes or coverings should produce the greatest
portion of bread, and this is what takes place in effect. The product of
the different layers of the endosperm is given below, and it will be seen
that the quantity of bread increases in a proportion relatively greater
than that of the gluten, which proves once more that the gluten of the