Page:Foods and their adulteration; origin, manufacture, and composition of food products; description of common adulterations, food standards, and national food laws and regulations (IA foodstheiradulte02wile).pdf/271

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grains vary in size from 2 to 10 microns, though the latter size is seldom reached, the most of the grains being about 6 microns. The hilum is seldom visible. The grains occur in the rice kernels mostly in groups of a considerable number of the individual grains forming starch masses of ovoid or angular form.

Fig. 30.—Rice Starch. × 200.—(Courtesy of Bureau of Chemistry.)


RYE.

This is the source of the principal supply of bread in many European countries, but is not extensively used in the United States except among our citizens of foreign birth. It is also extensively used for making whisky. Rye belongs to the genus Secale. Only one species (Secale cereale L.) is commonly cultivated, but this species has a great many different varieties or races. According to the time of sowing there are two great classes of rye, namely, that planted in the autumn or early winter and that planted in the early spring, generally known respectively as winter and spring rye. This is one of the hardiest of cereals, and grows well in all locations where wheat and other common cereals flourish. The area planted in rye in the United States in 1906 and the quantity harvested are given in the following table:

Acreage, 2,001,904
Yield per acre, 16.7 bushels
Production, 33,374,833 "
Price per bushel, 58.9 cents
Total value, 19,671,243 dollars