234 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



latest acts in ripening of wheat, and that the early ripened berry is so deficient 

 in gluten as to be unfit for milling. The question, then, becomes one not of 

 physical texture but of nutritive value. The farmer resents the imputation 

 that his grain is deficient in the mest important nutritive principle, while the 

 consumer becomes solicitous lest he may be using a flour not up to the stand- 

 ard in nutritive value. 



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

 said that in consequence of a great change in the process 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 defic- 

 ient 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 desirable 

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

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

 because in the long run tiie 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 gluten ; 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 investiga- 

 tion. 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. 1 

 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 specimen 

 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 formation, 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 somewhat 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. 



A small bundle of the grain was cut, labeled, and placed to ripen and dry 

 in an airy room, so as to give the best possible conditions in harvesting, and 

 every bundle was subjected to the same treatment in drying and ripening. 

 When fully dry the grain was beaten out by hand, winnowed, and preserved 

 in glass jars for chemical analysis. The grain thus ripened on the stalk, as it 



