237 



The Viiriety alone does not give us a high gluten value; 



Soil, feitilizers and weather influence the grain favourably or un- 

 favourably to a great degi-ee. A high, dry temperature is also necessaiy 

 dui'ing the ripening and harvesting periods. A fine looking sample of 

 Oregon wheat, grown west of the Cascade Mountaius, gave only 7 per 

 cent, of gluten, owing to the excessive rainfall and damp climate of 

 that portion of the country. For the same reason, and also because of 

 a partially exhausted soil, the wheats of Great Britain are soft, some 

 Scotch wheats giving only 5 per cent, of gluten. That the yield of 

 wheat in Great Britain is about 30 bushels to the acre, may be accounted 

 for not only by the use of fertilizers, but also by the product being soft, 

 that is, having a small per centage of gluten. If in Great Britain it 

 were possible to grow hard wheat, that is, wheat with a lai'ge percent- 

 age of gluten, the product per acre would be much smaller. Millers in 

 Great Britain require to import hard wheat to mix with their soft 

 wheat, in order to make sti-ong flour. 



Turning to Hungary, which may be termed the home of hard 

 wheat, as it is the home of the new process of grinding it, called the 

 Hungai'ian or roller process system, we find it described as a country 

 of extraordinary fertility, in the form of a basin or plain at the foot of 

 the Carpathian Mountains. The driest months are July and Auirust. 

 Soon after sunri.se the temperature daring these months ris'^s to about 74 

 and in the course of the day attains to from 95 to 100, remaining at 

 that until nearly sunset, while during this time there is little oi' no 

 rain and the nights are dewless. This same characteristic of climate 

 during the ripening ])eriod, belongs to the Vistula country of Poland 

 and the famous black soil country of Southern Russia, although the 

 winters there are much more severe than in Hungary. An analysis of 

 Hungarian flour of diflferent grades, gave from 35 to 42 of moist gluten. 

 Hungarian wheat, sown in England or in Scotland, becomes soft ; 

 and English or Scotch wheat, sown in Hungary, becomes, to a certain 

 extent, hard. 



The macaroni and vermicelli of Italy consists of a dough made 

 from hard wheat pressed into the shape of tubes. Italy, after having 

 exhausted her own lands, has drawn on the hard wheat provinces of 

 the South of France and the North of Spain., and also on the North of 



