238 



STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



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 con- 

 tains more gluten than wheat harvested at some earlier period of growth, 

 receives no support from the results of these analyses. 



The hard and flinty berry secured by over-ripening 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 period there is no increase either relatively or absolutely. If the 

 dead-ripe wheat is better for the miller than wheat 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 composition 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 carbhydrates was 

 so much more rapid that the percentage of albuminoids fell off continually up 

 to the period of ripening, and when the storing up of starch was completed 

 the ripening of the grain was also complete. 



