would grow into a new plant. Machines mix the starch cells in the middle of the grain with the gluten cells around them. At the very last the flour is sifted through a silk gauze called bolting cloth. At the top of a mill the dusty brown grains pour into a big hopper. At the bottom soft, velvety white flour runs into new barrels and white muslin bags. It is ready to be made into bread. Every part that has been taken out is turned into something useful to feed animals.
The bread you ate this morning was from wheat planted six months, or a year or more ago. And while you were eating it, farmers by thousands were in the fields putting in seed for next year’s bread. Look the morning paper and see how much it has to say about wheat. It will be on an inside page. There will be a lot of it in fine print. And there will be just as much tomorrow, and next year. The story of wheat is a continued story that is told over and over again, every year. But it is never quite the same story. People are always guessing how it is going to come out at the end of the year. If you ever go to Chicago you must visit the Board of Trade, where wheat and other grains are bought and sold every day by men who guess differently. The men who guess the nearest right, make money by buying and selling wheat.
