214 ENVIRONMENT AND MILLING QUALITIES. 



No. 



I am supposing that this record of baking results will be of 

 value in arriving at the influences of soil, climate and water-supply^ 

 but it must be remembered that other points besides baking value 

 go to the making up of commercial value, and having regard to 

 all the points mentioned concerning these wheats, I think my orig- 

 inal estimate, based on appearance, is the correct summary of 

 their relative commercial merits. I should like to add that the 

 Home Grown Wheat Committee of the National Association of 

 British and Irish Millers tested, in the earliest years of its existence, 

 the influence on quality of varying sets of natural Enghsh condi- 

 tions. We tested two varieties in each locality and found very 

 great dil!erences in both due to environment, but although the 

 effect of environment was not the same in each case on both 

 varieties, the better wheat in every case yielded the better bread. 

 In our view this showed that the effect of breed was predominant. 

 It would be interesting to see whether the same results would be 

 obtained in India if two or more varieties, each able to thrive 

 under the varying local conditions, were tested in a similar way/' 



It is interesting to notice that Mr. Humphries considers that 

 there is a difference of several shillings per quarter in money value 

 between the best and the worst of these samples, and that he is 

 further of opinion that " the results are striking, especially if the 

 seed sown in each case had been taken from the same original 

 bulk." This was the case — ^the seed was obtained from a local 

 zamindar in Muzaffarnagar and contained 90% soft grain and 

 10% hard. For the sake of convenience the results with 

 Muzafiarnagar in 1908-09 are summed up in the following table :— 



