122 THE RIPENING OF WHEAT. 



in gluten as to be incapable of making good flour, and that the formation of 

 gluten is one of the latest acts in ripening of wheat, and that the early 

 ripened berry is so deficient in gluten as to be unfit for milling. The ques- 

 tion, then, becomes one not of physical texture but of nutritive value. The 

 farmer resents the imputation that his grain is deficient in the most impor- 

 tant nutritive principle, while the consumer becomes solicitous lest he may 

 be using a flour not up to the standard in nutritive value. 



There would have been less heat in this discussion if the miller had frankly 

 said that in consequence of a great change in the j)rocess of milling, wheat of 

 a very different texture is now in demand, without attempting to drive out 

 the wheats which had been standards of excellence by representing them 

 so deficient in gluten as to be unfit for his use. The farmer replies: "My 

 white winter wheat had enough gluten five years ago, and commanded the 

 highest price. Why has it become so poor in gluten?" It is hardly fair 

 for the miller to attempt to cover his change of base from white to flinty 

 wheats by this flank movement of asserting that the soft wheats are deficient 

 in gluten. 



But if it is true that the hard and flinty wheats alone contain the desira- 

 ble quantity of gluten, and that gluten is the last principle developed in the 

 process of ripening, it is important for all classes that the facts should be 

 known, because in the long run the truth can wrong no one. 



We are told that the wheat of warm climates is richer in gluten and more 

 flinty in texture than wheat of cold climates. Some persons seem to assume 

 that the flinty quality of such wheat is in consequence of its large content 

 of gluten, and that the hardness of any wheat is proportioned to its content 

 of glufen ; that since the wheat of this climate becomes more flinty by 

 over-ripening, this change must be attended by an increase of gluten in the 

 last stages of ripening. 



The composition of wheat at different periods of growth seemed to me a 

 subject of so much importance that I determined to give it a careful inves- 

 tigation. In such a study it was not my desire to view the subject from the 

 standpoint of either the farmer or the miller. My aim was to establish data 

 rather than to formulate opinions. It seemed to me that for such an investi- 

 gation the most trustworthy conditions would be furnished by chemical 

 analysis of the wheat at different stages of growth. 



SELECTING SPECIMENS. 



A field of Clawson wheat, which appeared to be very uniform in its growth 

 and in the quality of its soil, was selected for one set of specimens, and 

 another similar field of Schumacher wheat for a parallel set of specimens. 

 I decided to take two sets of specimens of different varieties of wheat in 

 order to eliminate the influence of individual peculiarities in either variety. 



I began to gather my specimens on June 26, 1879, and gathered a speci- 

 men of each variety at 9 o'clock a. m. for twenty-one successive days, a 

 period embracing the progressive changes of the berry from its early forma- 

 tion, and before the contents of the berry were milky in color, up to the 

 time of dead ripeness. The Schumacher, however, was found to be some- 

 what in advance of the Clawson through the whole series, and the berry 

 was in the milk at- the first cutting. It seemed to keep about five days in 

 advance of the Clawson. 



