HOWARD, LEAKE AND HOWARD. 190 



Little useful information on the quality of the wheat grown 

 in the various tracts can be gained from an examination of the 

 crop as grown by the cultivators as their fields are so mixed and 

 ofteii contain at least a dozen different botanical varieties often 

 belonging to two subspecies. Further, these mixtures vary from 

 year to year as many of the cultivators do not keep their own seed 

 but obtain the seed wheat from the grain dealers. While an 

 examination of these variable mixtures gives a general idea of the 

 consistency of the crop likely to be raised in any tract, they are not 

 of much use for milling and baking tests as they always contain 

 so many classes of red and white grain often mixed with durum 

 wheat. 



The method adopted in this investigation is to compare, as 

 regards consistency, absolute weight, milling and baking quali- 

 ties, several pure types of w^heat grown at various stations accord- 

 ing to the manner in vogue among the best cultivators in each 

 place. Care is taken to select really typical wheat soil and to carry 

 out the cultivation according to the ordinary practice of the loca- 

 lity. In this manner the product fairly represents the result which 

 would in practice be obtained by introducing such a wheat among 

 the cultivators. The several stations have been selected so as to 

 include as many as possible of the most important wheat-growing 

 tracts of the Indo-Gangetic plain from the canal colonies of the 

 Punjab to the banks of the C4anges in Bengal and also two stations 

 representative of the black cotton soil tracts of Peninsular India. 

 At each station several wheats are grown of markedly different 

 qualities. These wheats are all pure types, that is, they are both 

 agriculturally and botanically uniform. Full cultural details are 

 kept and thus the same wheat grown at the different stations can 

 be compared both as regards its behaviour in the field and as re- 

 gards the character of the resulting produce. 



The weight of 1,000 grains is obtained, the consistency is 

 determined and the samples are then sent to bo milled and baked 

 in England by Mr. A. E. Humphries,' the Chairman of the Home- 

 grown Wheat Committee of the Incorporated National Associatioji 



1 For an account of the method adopted in carrying out tiieso milling and baking tests, 

 see Humphries and Billen, Journal of Ayricnllund HScience, Vol. II, 1907, p. 1. 



