The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-05-04
WAR BREAD AND DYES
BY Frederic j. Haskin, Director
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
Washington d C.

Washington. D. c., May An the
| development of substitutes for use in
| place of wheat the United States is
ahead of Germany. We have just as
high a grade of chemical skill and
| training among our experts and we
have great many more raw materials
to draw on for wheat substitutes. En-
ports of the bureau of chemistry in
the department of agriculture have
baked no less than forty different
kinds of bread, using as many substi
tutes for rs per cent of the wheat
flour needed. All of these breads are
entirely nourishing and palatable and
some are considered by those who
have tasted them to be superior to or
| binary bread. The wheat substitutes,
besides such ordinary ones as buck
wheat and oats and rye, include the
more unexpected names of bananas
and chestnuts and rice and kafir corn
and cottonseed meal and peanuts. The
peanut in particular furnishes a fine
tasty bread, rich and nourishing. and
of a beautiful light texture. But all
these substitute breads are tasty,
nourishing and adequate for food.
Now there is no danger that the
United States is going to be badly
pinched for lack of bread. There are
no grounds whatever for panic. But
| there is every ground for economy,
for the use of substitutes and for the
taking of all practicable measures to
conserve the wheat supply. Master
bakers already speak of the necessity
for higher prices. The bread situa-
ton can be clearly summed up in a
few figures and since they touch
every Americans three meals day
these figures may not seem dry.
First it should be noted that the
bread situation includes both a neces-
sity and an obligation. There is the
domestic need, amounting to $50, 000,-
600 bushels year, from which about
10000, 900 barrels of flour are milled.
Our consumption of flour is a little
over a barrel a year per person. Then
there is the element of foreign de-
mand. The United States is a wheat
exporting nation ard our European
allies are looking to us for food. 1t is
a national obligation to export as
much wheat as possible and here is
I where the shortage pinches. The crop
prospects show that the winter wheat
harvest is going to fall below even last
years short crop. The spring wheat
crop in the United States is normally
only one-third of the total Even
though acreage is greatly increased.
with spring wheat In order to do
our share in the war we must keep
our food exports up and in order to
keep them up we must piece out our
wheat supply.
The men in the bureau of chemistry
who have worked out the new breads
are confident it can be done In their
list OF wheat substitutes they show
where the nation can draw on enough
raw materials to substitute for a c11ar-
ter of the entire wheat consumption.
The list includes raw materials to be
round in every section-corn. pota
toes, rice, peanuts, oats, peas and
Deans, bran, cottOnSeed meal and doz-
ems of others. And it should be- re-
membered that the breads baked from
flour that is hree-fourths wheat flour
ana one-fourth substitute are no I'M
paiatable makeshffts. They are all
breads whose excellence is youched
for by the palate and whose nourish-
ing qualities are proven by chemical
analysis.
Doctor LIE Clerc, who is in charge
of the bread Investigations, has in his
offlce little hand mill that cost IS.
me other day he looked into the To-
cal flour situation. He found that
flour was selling at $3.50 a barrel
ana whole wheat flour at SIS barrel
On his little mill he can grind a barrel
OF flour from three bushels and six
teen pounds of wheat. At the current
nigh prices this wheat would cost
about SIS. Thus, by hand grinding,
you can produce just as good a flour
at a saving of from SIS to IS a barrel.
Doctor lie Clerc estimates that the or
binary family of five could save about
$35 year this way. All the flour
necessary for the home baking could
be ground on the home mill by the
man of the house If he were willing to
turn the handle for ten minutes of ani
evening once or twice a week
Another important line of work in
the bureau of chemistry is the prog
ress made in dyestuff manufacture.
The dependence of this country on
Germany for dyes three years ago and
the high prices and the dye famine
caused by the stoppage of supplies
are already matters of history 1t is
less known, however, that this condi-
, ton is rapidly becoming a thing of
the past. Processes for dye manufac-
ture are being worked out in this
country; the prices of dyes are stead
lily going down. Just now they are
still so high that any man who can
, make dye can make a profit But
even after the war we are going to
hold some of this business The work
along this line is still youn5 and the
experts are reluctant to prophesy but
they go So far as to say that GERMANY
has lost some of it's American dive
market forever. We can make the
same dyes here and make them
cheaper.