Grain (material)

“ In fact, it is just this stubbornness of grain which renders them beautiful, for, by running in all directions, interlacing the fibres, so that the end of the grain is alternately presented side by side with the parallel grain, the light is caught and retained on dead surfaces that absorb it, making those beautiful contrasts which the most uncultivated admire. ”

“ In the first place, however, let us remark that it is a fact universally acknowledged, that it is the most intelligent of the animated beings that derive their subsistence from grain. The grain of siligo2745 highly roasted and pounded in Aminean2746 wine, applied to the eyes, heals defluxions of those organs;2747 and the grain of wheat, parched on a plate of iron, is an instantaneous remedy for frost-bite in various parts of the body. ”

“ The particles or grains of which the rock is built up are of various forms and sizes, from a thoroughly rounded grain, almost like small shot, to a broken and jagged structure, and to others possessing crystalline faces. These grains, most of them possessing a longer axis, have been rolled backwards and forwards by the tides or by river-currents. The larger grains naturally lie on their sides when freshly deposited, with their axes in the plane of bedding ”

“ It is fitting that a grain which is so peculiarly adapted to be the aid and support of a great civilization should grow upon a plant of such dignity and beauty as is the maize. The perfect proportions of the slender stalk to the long gracefully curving leaves; the plumed tassels swaying and bowing to every breeze and sending their pollen showers to the waiting skeins of silk hidden below; the ripened ear with its exact rows of shining yellow grains wrapped in silken husks; all these make the corn plant as delightful to the eye as it is intrinsically important to the welfare of nations. ”

“ If we could obtain a variety of wheat of good quality, which, instead of two tons of straw and one of wheat to the acre, produced a ton and a half of each, it might be profitably cultivated, and the differences in the chemical composition of grain and straw are not so very great as to make me despair of this being done some time or other. ”

“ And accordingly, as the Grain affords more or less of the said powder, Dyers buy more or less of it.
'Tis to be noted, That the first red powder, which appears, issues out of the Hole of the Grain, that is on the side, where the Grain adhered to the Plant. And that, which about the end appears sticking on the Grain, hath been alive in the husk, having pierced its cover; though the hole, whence it commonly issues, remains close as to the Eye. ”

“ A single grain of true wheat may be the fruitful parent of grand harvests to come—of a handful of grain at first, each corn of which, fructifying in turn, will yield more and more until, as the years pass on, whole fields of waving gold will mark their increase.
Look carefully, dear ones, for the little grains of true corn in your natures. The little grain of love to God will grow if you let your hearts dwell on the thought of His great love for you. ”

“ An ordinary grain of wheat, if sliced through the middle and examined as to its structure, will be found to consist of several layers, the outer a hard coating, which contains mineral salts, lime, sand, etc. ”

“ There is good grain in plenty, but it is sowed along with the chaff and the tares, and now for the last harvesting the grain has germinated only to dwindle and die, for the tares have sprung up and choked it and the red garnering is of tares alone. ”

“ The Board of Agriculture, in order to ascertain what each of the various sorts of grain employed as substitutes for bread-corn 56would produce, when ground into flour, with only the broad bran taken out, caused a bushel of each of the undermentioned sorts of seeds to be ground for their inspection: the weight of the grain, as well as the bran and the flour, was as follows:
A bushel of wheat, upon an average, weighs sixty-one pounds; when ground, the meal weighs 603⁄4 lbs. ”

“ From time immemorial wheat has been reduced to flour by grinding it between heavy disks of stone set upon a shaft, the upper one of which revolved, while the nether one remained stationary. The grain, being introduced through an opening in the center of the upper stone, was ground between the burred surfaces of the stones, and gradually found its way outward, until it was discharged from the periphery or skirt of the stones in the form of flour. ”

“ Bread made from the entire wheat is looked upon with far more favor than formerly, and it is no longer necessary to use the crude products of the grain for its manufacture, since modern invention has worked such a revolution in milling processes that it is now possible to obtain a fine flour containing all the nutritious elements of the grain. ”

“ The flour from which it is made is prepared by an American process, which removes the outer coat of the grain—a silicious matter wholly indigestible—without injuring or removing the internal coat, which is the most nutritious part of the grain. ”

“ Before we can ascertain these conditions, we must know more than we yet do of the quality of our own grain. Some, grown in the best way on the best soils, is sound and good: much more, it is to be feared, will turn out ill,—blighted, damp, shrunken,—needing a large admixture of hard old wheat, if it can be made into flour at all. ”

“ He has a small grist mill and threshing mill, with which he threshes and grinds his grain. By grinding his wheat twice it makes a fair article of flour, but his facilities for bolting it are not quite up to the times, consequently his flour is not quite so white as our high grade flour, but it makes good bread, nevertheless. ”

“ The grain, after having been taken to the top story of the mill and blown and sieved, is divested of its paddy or husks by passing it over a sieve having a jumping action or tapping motion at the bottom, or by being carried between stones like those usually employed for grinding wheat. ”

“ This first simple product of grinding is termed wheat meal, unbolted, or Graham flour, and of course contains all the elements of the grain. In ordinary milling, however, this is subjected to various siftings, boltings, or dressings, to separate the finer from the coarser particles, and then subdivided into various grades of flour, which vary much in composition and properties. The coarser product contains the largest proportion of nutrients, while in the finer portions there is an exclusion of a large part of the nitrogenous element of the grain. ”

“ Of modern weights in ordinary use, the grain, represented by a barley-corn, and the carat, adapted from the seed of the pea, have descended without alteration from the Arabs to our goldsmiths and jewellers. ”

“ Again; he who raises wheat, corn, or other grains, has an equal inducement to look to it that his manures are abundantly impregnated with these essential elements. Phosphates, so available to the raiser of stock, are equally so to the producer of grain; because the size, richness, and nutritious qualities of the grain depend largely on the presence of these in the soil. A farmer, therefore, has a vital interest in this matter, and should obtain what best suits his purpose. ”

“ The baseline of our weights and measures is to be found in a single grain of corn, such as would seem to be Nature's gift—the staff of life! It was a natural standard for agriculturists, who would be the first to use it, to adopt. ”

“ Flour or meal produced from barley, maize, or rice, cannot be employed satisfactorily for the manufacture of bread unless a considerable portion of wheat flour is added, and in countries where these grains are the staple food of the people they are as often eaten as porridge or mash as in the form of bread.
On examining a grain of corn from any of the numerous cereals used in the preparation of flour, such as wheat, rye, barley, etc., it will be found to consist of the husk, or exterior covering, which is generally of a dark colour, and the inner part, which is more or less white. ”

“ XLVIII. A corn plant consists of a culm bearing at its head a spike, which, when it is not mutilated, has, as in barley and wheat, three parts, namely: the grain, the glume and the beard, not to speak of the sheath which contains the spike while it is being formed. The grain is that solid interior part of the spike, the glume is its hull and the beard those long thin needles which grow out of the glume. Thus as the glume is the pontifical robe of the grain, the beard is its apex. ”

“ But perhaps the time may come when we shall return to the use of unfermented bread, and shall think that bread made from other grains, and unfermented, is quite as good, or even better, than the fermented bread of flour. At the present time, however, wheat is more consumed than any other grain,” and with this long quotation I will conclude. ”

“ There is one more advantage beyond ordinary inquiries, of consequence, where so much grain is raised as in this valley; be the grain ever so ripe, there is no waste of grain by any agitation of the straw, and all the waste which can take place must arise from the handling and shaking in binding. ”

“ Not one must be lost and every inch of ground must be put to use. The grain along the margin, for a breadth of sixteen inches, had been gathered into handfuls and skillfully tied, each with an unpulled barley stem, without breaking the straw, thus permitting even the grains in that head to fill and be gathered with the rest, while the tying set all straws well aslant, out of the way, and permitted the last inch of naked ground to be fitted without injuring the grain. ”

“ Then if we inquire into the sources of these elements as they have come from the soil to form this grain of corn, the indispensability of a knowledge of chemistry will become more apparent. In our explanations we shall soon come upon capillary attraction, and the person is dull, indeed, who does not stand in awe before the mystery of this subject. If we broaden our inquiry so as to compass the evolution of an ear of corn, we shall realize that we have entered upon an inquiry of vast and fascinating import. ”

“ The cereals and grasses are especially distinguished by the larger quantity of silica they contain, and the exhaustive effect consequent upon the removal of both grain and straw from soils which contain but a limited supply of that substance in an available condition is obvious. ”

“ The modern corn and flour mill differs from the primitive hand-mill in the size of the stones, in the addition of an apparatus for separating the hulls and bran from the farinaceous part of the grain, and in the power applied for putting it in motion. ”

“ The grain is poured into the hollow and the upper stone is rolled back and forth over it while the flour gradually sifts out over the sides on to the cloth which is spread on the ground underneath the mill. ”

“ The return for sowing of all kinds of grain, notably wheat, corn, barley, is calculated, on an average, to be fifty to a hundred-fold, while the date palm flourishes with scarcely any cultivation at all. ”

“ The simplest method by which grain can be reduced to meal, or flour, is rubbing or pounding it between two stones; and this was probably the one first practised in all primitive conditions of society, as it is still pursued among some tribes of uncivilized men. ”

“ The mills are of a very old type; one stone revolves on a fixed lower one, and the grain is fed in at a hole pierced near the centre of the upper stone. The flour from the first grinding is very coarse, and it is reground two or more times, according to the degree of fineness required. ”

“ Nowadays we use a grain food as the standard, and of all grains wheat is the one which is nearest perfection, or which supplies to the body those elements that it requires, and in best proportions. A perfect food must contain carbonaceous, nitrogenous, and mineral matter in definite quantities ”

“ Whey is the product remaining after the removal of fat and casein from milk in the process of cheese-making.
2. Kumiss is the product made by the alcoholic fermentation of mare’s or cow’s milk.
II. VEGETABLE PRODUCTS. A. Grain Products. a. GRAINS AND MEALS.
1. Grain is the fully matured, clean, sound, air-dry seed of wheat, maize, rice, oats, rye, buckwheat, barley, sorghum, millet, or spelt.
2. Meal is the clean, sound product made by grinding grain. ”

“ It is evident that every species of corn must have been originally the spontaneous production of the earth; but as the grain, previous to cultivation, would grow but scantily, its importance as food might long escape observation, and mankind would naturally derive a more obvious, though less nutritive subsistence, from acorns, berries, and other fruits which were within their reach. ”

“ The wood exhibits a variety of grain second only to oak, and I think that, after oak, it is the most difficult wood to imitate, as to do it justice requires the free treatment which can be given only by a trained hand and a correct eye. The average veins are free and graceful without being set or constrained, and the grains are constantly interlocking and branching off from the main hearts. ”

“ The production of thought parallels the production of grain. An acre of ground, that yields thirty bushels or eighteen hundred pounds of wheat, may easily grow two whole tons of straw and chaff. These latter are absolutely necessary to the formation of the wheat kernel; yet the consumer usually has little use for them ”

“ There are several causes which contribute to the preservation of grain; the outer607 coats in some kinds are more numerous, as in millet, for instance; the juices are of an oleaginous nature,608 and so supply ample moisture, as in sesame, for example; while in other kinds, again, they are naturally106 bitter,609 as in the lupine and the chicheling vetch. It is in wheat more particularly that insects breed, as it is apt to heat from the density of its juices, and the grain is covered with a thick bran. ”