Mar. i8, 1918 



Respiration of Stored Wheat 



701 



of four of these was measured. In every case the rate of respiration 

 was greater than in sound wheat of the same moisture content which 

 was taken from car lots at the same time. The tests of these frosted 

 samples are shown in Table XI, the last column of which shows the 

 interpolated respiration data of sound wheat. 



THE PERIOD OF DAMPNESS AS INFLUENCING THE RATE OF RESPI- 

 RATION OF WHEAT 



When damp wheats are stored, the excess moisture which is responsible 

 for their dampness has been present for varying lengths of time. This 

 is called for the purposes of this discussion the "period of dampness." 



In connection with these studies a series of wheat samples was taken 

 from car lots by the State Grain Inspection Department between the 15th 

 and 27th of March, which contained varying percentages of moisture. 

 The respiratory activity of each of these was determined, and on plot- 

 ting a curve it was observed that these samples gave materially higher 

 values than the samples which had been dampened and allowed to 

 stand for three days before measuring the rate of respiration. The 

 curves tend toward convergence at a moisture content of 12 per cent. 

 These data are given in Tables XII and XIII and are shown graphically 

 in figure 5. 



Table XII. — Respiration of natural hard spring wheat collected from car lots, and 

 incubated at ^7.8° C. for four days 



Laboratory No. 



G128 

 G127 

 G124 

 G120 

 G104 

 G103 

 G107 

 G109 



Moisture. 



Per cent. 

 12.47 

 13. II 

 14.70 

 15-51 

 15-73 

 16. 00 



16.53 

 16. 90 



Weight per 

 bushel. 



Pounds. 

 62 



63 



58i 



52 



59 



59 



56 



51 



Weight per 

 1,000 kernels. 



Gm. 

 30-56 

 32-94 

 24. 60 

 26. 92 

 28.64 

 25.72 

 22.88 



Nitrogen in 

 dry matter. 



Per cent. 

 2. 14 

 2. 16 

 2. 

 2. 

 2. 

 2. 



05 

 31 



47 

 37 



2.25 



Carbon 

 dioxid re- 

 spired per 

 24 hours for 

 each 100 gm. 

 of dry matter. 



Mgm. 

 O. 61 



•75 

 1.49 

 3.26 

 3-94 

 5- 69 

 10. 65 

 13.86 



Table XIII. — Interpolated quantity of carbon dioxid respired per unit of time and mate- 

 rial, at even percentages of moisture 



3832G°— 18 2 



