isease being more
virulent in the American than the Canadian side of the valley. The
result was that the quality of the gluten of that season's American
spring wheat was most seriously affected, its famed strength being
almost gone. Wheat from the Canadian side was also affected, but not
nearly to so great an extent. Flour milled from hard winter wheat in the
American winter districts is sometimes nearly as strong as the spring
wheat of the North-west. Hungarian flour milled from Theis wheat is also
very strong, and so is the flour milled from some south Russian spring
wheats. But here again the degree of strength will vary from season to
season in a remarkable manner. In the main each land has its own clearly
marked type of wheat. While the United States, Canada, Hungary and
Russia are each capable of growing strong wheat, Great Britain, France
and Germany produce wheat more or less weak. It follows that the bread
baked from flour milled from wheat from British, French or German wheat
alone would not make a loaf of sufficient volume, judged by present
British standards. As a matter of fact, except in some country
districts, British bakers either use strong foreign flour to blend with
English country flour, or, more frequently, they are supplied with flour
by British millers milled from a blend in which very often English wheat
has a small, or no place at all. If the baker's trade calls for the
making of household bread, especially of the London type, he must use a
strong flour, with plenty of staple gluten in it, because it is this
element which supplies the driving or lifting force, without which a
high, bold loaf cannot be produced. If the demand is for tin or (as it
is called in many parts of the north of England) pan bread, a weaker
flour will suffice, as the tin will keep it up. A Vienna loaf should be
made with at least a certain proportion of Hungarian patent flour, which
is normally the highest-priced flour in the market, though probably the
bulk of the Vienna rolls made in London contain no Hungarian flour. A
cake of flat shape can be very well made with a rather weak flour, but
any cake that is required to present a domed top cannot be prepared
without a flour of some strength.

Flavour of flour.

It is a general opinion, though contested by some authorities, that
soft, weak flours contain more flavour than strong, harsh flours. The
strong wheats of the American and Canadian North-West make less flavoury