WHEAT, AS A NEW SOUTH WALES PRODUCT. 435 



process commenced at the Cow Pastures has gone on, and that 

 every season we see considerable stretches of country abandoned, 

 so far as wheat farming is concerned, and new land brought 

 under the process of exhaustion. Sometimes those who give it 

 up as an occupation tliat does not pay, blame the seasons, the 

 rainfall, westerly winds, blight, rust, &c., &c. Theirs is a case for 

 commiseration, and cause for regret, that ever the notion got 

 about in this or any other country, that because land is new, 

 therefore it is rich ; that men can farm it, by the simple process 

 of " taking up tlie land," as the phrase is, breaking it up three or 

 four inches deep, by a very doubtful kind of ploughing process 

 sowing seed upon it, and waiting, patiently if possible, for a crop. 

 Some get it on these terms for a few seasons ; others fail at once. 

 The few are those who from the outset do what they can to keep 

 up the fertility of the land, and so increase their crops and better 

 their prospects. 



Tlie results of the exliausting system are seen both in the 

 quality and quantity of the grain. Millers are complaining of the 

 former ; the wheat-grower himself feels the pinch of the latter ; 

 and when, for his meagre crop, he finds that he cannot get the 

 price being paid for the best lots sent to the mill, his case becomes 

 grevious. As an instance of what is going on, a case could be 

 mentioned where two shillings per bushel was all that could be got 

 at a well managed flour mill, while three shillings were paid for 

 lots up to the requirements of good clas.s flour. The miller's test, 

 in such case is the simple one of examining the grain, in view 

 of its freedom from seeds of volunteer oats, barley, and others 

 that should never be seen in wheat-fields, but which deteriorate 

 the value in very many cases amongst us. Then he examines into 

 the fulness or plumpness of the grain, and lastly he breaks up a 

 portion with liis teeth, and his mouth laboratory, tests for 

 "strength," which is really the gluten, the pith and marrow of 

 wheat. The test cannot be complete, even with a very perfect 

 apparatus of the kind mentioned. But, it is wonderful, almost, 

 how accurately, by long practice an un vitiated palate can get at 

 the proportion of " strength " in wheat by this means. In the 

 more perfect system of milling coming into use, the more certain 

 chemical test is applied, and the proportions of gluten, and the 

 quality of the wheat as a flour yielder are got at with absolute 

 accuracy. 



So far, I have spoken of the gluten mainly as an ingredient of 

 wheat, and it is because the proportion of that substance has so 

 much to do with its quality. The test for its presence in bulk is 

 not diflScult,* but before dealing with that, I would submit the 

 following from Mr. J. J. Willis, who supei'intended the Lawes and 



* In the " Elements of Australian Agriculture" (Mackay) a simple process for extractiner 

 gluten is given. 



