WHEAT-GROWING AND ITS PROBLEMS 299 



guide in selecting wheats for experimental purposes. But 

 these indications are not regarded as final, and experiment 

 stations working on wheat have arrangements for baking 

 tests. 



A parallel problem is also being investigated. How far does 

 the " strength " of the grain depend on external conditions ? It 

 has been ascertained that strength is mainly an inherent pro- 

 perty of the grain, Fife and its descendants being strong whether 

 grown in England or in Canada. " Strength " cannot be im- 

 parted to a wheat which is normally weak by any method of 

 manuring or cultivation. But strength is influenced by environ- 

 ment. Wheat grown on newly cleared scrub-land in part of 

 North-west Canada is often more or less " weak," yielding a 

 certain proportion of " piebald " grain, i.e. grain which, when cut 

 with a penknife, shows whitish, opaque spots instead of the 

 uniform, waxy brown appearance of strong wheat. This lowers 

 its " grade " and its price. But when the soil has been in 

 cultivation some time the " piebald " grain no longer appears 

 and the market value improves. Weak " piebald " wheat con- 

 tains less .'protein than strong hard wheat. F. T. Shutt has 

 investigated this problem and obtained some very interesting 

 and suggestive results. The wheat used as seed in one such 

 district (Valley River, Dauphin district) was a strong wheat, 

 grading No. i Northern and containing irii per cent of 

 protein. Grown on newly broken land it yielded a soft piebald 

 grain of lower quality, containing only 9*93 per cent of protein. 

 On land that had been in cultivation during nine years, however, 

 it gave a hard grain, superior to the parent wheat, containing 

 12-62 per cent of protein. When in the next year the piebald 

 grain was used as seed almost identical results were obtained ; 

 the grain grown on new land contained only 10 per cent of 

 protein, whilst that grown on old land contained 13*5 per cent. 

 Study of the soils in situ showed that the main difference lay in 

 their water content : whereas the newly broken land contained 

 30-35 per cent of water between May and August, the old land 

 during the same period containing from 13-23 per cent only ; the 

 lower amount during the period of grain formation. The deduc- 

 tion that high moisture content of the soil was responsible for 

 the " soft " grain and low protein content was further tested on 

 the irrigated land at Lethbridge, Southern Alberta. The 

 original seed contained 15 '95 per cent of protein; grown in 



