THE EIPEXKG OF WHEAT. 



BY E. C, KEDZIE. 



[First published in Report for 1881-'82.] 



The wheat crop of the United States is of great importance, because it is a 

 staple agricultural production in nearly every State and territory of our Union. 

 The grain is also important, because it furnishes the leading article of food for 

 civilized man. Both as consumers and producers, Americans^re interested in 

 this leading cereal. Any circumstance, therefore, which may affect its jjro- 

 •duction or modify its nature as food, becomes a matter of general interest. 



One of the circumstances which has a modifying influence upon tl\e quan- 

 tity and quality of wheat is the time of cutting the grain. There is some 

 diversity of opinion respecting the time when wheat should be cut in order 

 to secure the best results, some advocating early cutting, and others recom- 

 mending that the grain should become dead ripe before harvesting. The 

 plea for complete rijDening, like the plea for flinty wheats as a class, is based 

 upon the claim that only the hard and flinty wheats have the desirable amount 

 of gluten ; that the early ripened and the soft wheats are so deficient in gluten 

 that good flour cannot be made from them, and only the hard wheats possess 

 the requisite amount of gluten. 



The true explanation of this exaltation of the flinty wheats, and the depre- 

 ciation of the soft wheats, is that there has been a revolution in the methods 

 of milling by the introduction of the patent process. Under the old method 

 of milling when the grinding was completed at one operation, the soft wheats 

 were in demand, and early cutting, while the '^^ berry was in the dough," was 

 recommended. But since the new process has been introduced, in which the 

 grinding is accomplished in successive stages, and the highest prized and 

 priced flour is now made from the middlings, which formerly were discarded 

 as unfit for .human food, a verj^diilei'ent quality of wheat is desired. The 

 soft wheats are no longer in demand, but the hard and flinty wheats which 

 will produce the largest amount possible of middlings for purifying, making 

 the "new process flour." The farmer is urged to discard his white winter 

 wheat, and to let his wheat stand till dead ripe, in order to secure the hard 

 and flinty berry. This is fair and legitimate, and should give offense to no 

 one, for the miller has the right to give the preference to one quality of 

 wheat berry over another quality; but the case becomes different when he 

 alleges as the ground for such preference that the soft wheat is so deficient 



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