The Color of Wheat Kernels 



143 



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KERNELS OF KINNEY WHEAT 



The Kinney variety is a late spring wheat, commonly grown in the Willamette Valley of 

 Oregon. It is known also under the names Surprise and Noah Island. The kernels in the photo- 

 graph contained a peculiar color variation (which unfortunately could not be reproduced in this 

 illustration) in that part of each kernel was distinctly red — the normal color character of Kinney — 

 and the remaining portion was yellowish white, the character commonly associated with white 

 wheat. Photograph by F. H. Lathrop, sent by Geo. R. Hyslop, Professor of Farm Crops in the 

 Oregon Agricultural College. (Fig. 24.) 



kind of wheat, but pigmentation of the 

 bran layer, even in its different inten- 

 sities, as found in different varieties, 

 remains relatively constant. 



The appearance of wheat resulting 

 from the combination of bran and 

 endosperm colors furnishes a basis for 

 its classification. So there are found 

 in the market classes or sub-classes 

 such descriptive terms as "hard red," 

 "soft red," "hard white," "soft white," 

 "dark hard," and "yellow hard." 



So stable are the characters con- 

 cerned that the great bulk of wheat 

 marketed in this country can be as- 

 signed without difficulty, by those 

 familiar with its characteristics, to the 

 particular group to which it belongs. 



The above illustration shows some 

 kernels of wheat known as the Kinney 

 variety. The history of this wheat is 

 not known, but it has been grown in 

 the Willamette Valley of Oregon for 

 about thirty years. 



The straw of the Kinney variety is 

 very glaucous when green but white 

 and strong when ripe. The spike is 

 awnless, linear oblong and erect and 

 the glumes are glabrous, white and 

 broad. The kernels usually are red, 

 small and soft. The color variation 

 mentioned here has been found on 

 kernels from two different lots of wheat 

 sold at Corvallis, Oregon. 



