126 



THE RIPENING OF WHEAT. 



TABLE II. 



By Table II. it will be seen that the highest percentage of albuminoids is 

 formed in the earliest stages of growth^ and it falls off regularly to the com- 

 plete ripening of the seed, which contains relatively less albuminoids than 

 at any previous period of growth. The claim that gluten is principally 

 formed near the close of the process of ripening, and that the dead ripe 

 wheat contains more gluten than wheat harvested at some earlier period of 

 growth, receives no support from the results of these analyses. 



The liard and flinty berry secured by over-rij^ening is no richer in gluten 

 than the soft berry secured by early harvesting. I am now speaking of the 

 percentage composition, and claim that a hundred pounds of early ripened 

 wheat will contain a greater number of pounds of albuminoids than will a 

 hundred pounds of the same wheat at a later period of ripening, when the 

 accumulation of starch and other carbhydrates will have lowered the relative 

 amount of albuminoids. But while the albuminoids are centessimally greater 

 at early periods of growth, the acreage product increases with the growth of 

 the crop up to a certain stage of ripening (when the grain crushes dry), and 

 after this jieriod there is no increase either relatively or absolutely. If the 

 dead-ripe wheat is better for the miller than wh&at cut at an earlier period, 

 it is in consequence of the physical properties of the flinty berry, and not 

 from any change in the chemical Gomposition or increase of nutritive 

 value. 



CARBHYDRATES. 



One significant change in the process of ripening was the rapid accumula- 

 tion of starch. So rapid was the accumulation of the carbhydrates, that 

 while the albuminoids increased in actual amount the increase of carbhy- 

 drates was so much more rapid that the percentage of albuminoids fell off 

 continually np to the period of ripening, and when the storing up of starch 

 was completed the ripening of the grain was also complete. 



