At the Industrial Exhibition in 1851, twenty-six premiums only were distributed for specimens of wheat; of these, five were awarded to British farmers, three to France, three to Russia, three to Australia, three to the United States, and one each or severally to other nations.  Some beautiful specimens of wheat were exhibited from South Australia, weighing seventy pounds a bushel; which were eagerly sought after for seed wheat by our farmers and the colonists of Canada and the United States.  But as is well observed by Professor Lindley, it has no peculiar constitutional characteristics by which it may be distinguished from other wheats.  Its superior quality is entirely owing to local conditions; to the peculiar temperature, the brilliant light, the soil, and those other circumstances which characterise the climate of South Australia.

All kinds of wheat contain water in greater or lesser quantities.  Its amount is greater in cold countries than in warm.  In Alsace from 16 to 20 per cent.; England from 14 to 17 per cent.; United States from 12 to 14 per cent.; Africa and Sicily from 9 to 11 per cent.  This accounts for the fact, that the same weight of southern flour yields more bread than northern, English wheat yields 13 lbs. more to the quarter than Scotch.  Alabama flour, it is said, yields 20 per cent. more than that of Cincinnati.  And in general American flour, according to one of the most extensive London bakers, absorbs 8 or 10 per cent. more of its own weight of water in being made into bread than the English.  The English grain is fuller and rounder than the American, being puffed up with moisture.

Every year the total loss in the United States from moisture in wheat and flour is estimated at four to five million dollars.  To remedy this great evil, the grain should be well ripened before harvesting, and well dried before being stored in a good dry granary.  Afterwards, in grinding and in transporting, it should be carefully protected from wet, and the flour be kept from exposure to the atmosphere.  The best precaution is kiln-drying.  By this process the wheat and flour are passed over iron plates heated by steam to the boiling point.  From each barrel of flour 16 or 17 pounds of water are thus expelled, leaving still four or five per cent. in the flour, an amount too small to do injury.  If all the water be expelled, the quality of the flour is deteriorated.

The mode of ascertaining the amount of water in flour is this; take a small sample, say five ounces, and weigh it carefully; put it into a dry vessel, which should be heated by boiling water; after six or seven hours, weigh it; its loss of weight shows the original amount of water.

The next object is to ascertain the amount of gluten.  Gluten is an adhesive, pasty mass, and consists of several different principles, though its constitution has not yet been satisfactorily determined.  It is chiefly the nutritious portion of the flour.  The remaining principles are mostly starch, sugar and gum.  On an average their relative amount in 100 parts are about as follows:—­