52 ENVIRONMENT AND MILLING QUALITIES. 



The earlier investigations carried out in Europe and North 

 America, which bear on this subject, have been restricted to a great 

 extent to the influence of external conditions on the composition of 

 wheat. With the exception of the work of Humphries and Biffen 1 

 in England, little or no attention has been devoted to the more 

 important practical question of the influence of environment on the 

 milling and baking qualities. The earlier literature is referred to in 

 the previous paper and, since this was published, several other 

 contributions to the subject have appeared which are dealt with 

 below. 



In the United States, Le Clerc' 2 has published a detailed 

 account of his investigations on the influence of environment on the 

 composition of wheat, the work being a continuation of previous 

 experiments on this subject. Wheat from the same original seed was 

 grown continuously at each of the three apices of two triangles (1) 

 Kansas, Texas and California, (2) South Dakota, Kansas and Cali- 

 fornia. The crop from each apex was then sent to the other two 

 stations and then grown under the same conditions as the continu- 

 ously grown seed. There were thus three plots at each station, all 

 from the same original seed, one plot grown continuously at that 

 point, the seed of the other two plots coming from the other apices of 

 the triangle. Two samples of wheat were used in the experiments (a) 

 Kubanka, a spring durum grown at South Dakota, Kansas and Cali- 

 fornia and (b) Crimean, a common winter wheat, at Texas, Kansas 

 and California. In the case of both wheats there were great varia- 

 tions in the percentage of nitrogen, in the consistency and in the 

 absolute weight. The crop at each centre, no matter how different 

 the composition and consistency of the seed sown, was practically 

 identical. For example, when Kansas seed with 19*1 per cent, of 

 protein, Texas seed with 12 2 per cent, of protein and the Calif ornian 

 seed with 10*4 per cent, of protein were all grown in California, 

 the composition of the grain from the three plots was almost identi- 

 cal, namely, 11 per cent., lT4per cent, and 11 '3 per cent, of protein. 



1 Humphries & Biffen, Journal of Agricultural Science, Vol. II, 1907, p. 6. 



2 Le Clerc. Bull. 12S, Bureau of Chemistry, ('. 8. Bept. of Agr., H»10. 



