WHEAT IN WESTERN CANADA Tl 



Pigweed, and Stinkweed, These admixtures must be re- 

 moved before the wheat can be milled into flour, and their 

 presence therefore decreases the value of the wheat to 

 the buyer. Whenever a sample of wheat is graded, the 

 admixtures are separated by sieving and weighed. The 

 percentage of admixtures is then determined, and this is 

 called setting the dockage. The amount of the dockage 

 influences the price at which the wheat may be sold, and 

 its accurate determination is therefore a very important 

 part of grain inspection. 



The condition of wheat is affected by various causes. 

 Among these are such diseases as smut, wheat scab, and 

 rust. Smut balls are diseased kernels filled with several 

 millions of black spores, the reproductive bodies of the 

 smut fungus. When smutted grain is threshed, many of 

 the smut balls break and scatter their spores over the 

 sound kernels so that the latter become blackened and dirty 

 in appearance. Moreover, smutted grain has a very evil 

 odor, smelling like decaying fish. Smutted wheat, there- 

 fore, must be thoroughly scoured before it can be milled. 

 Wheat scab causes wheat kernels to take on a pink ap- 

 pearance. Eusted kernels are usually quite sound al- 

 though shriveled, but it sometimes happens that they be- 

 come black-pointed owing to the presence, at the stalk end 

 of the kernel, of a little pustule of black spores of the rust 

 fungus. Wheat may contain too large a percentage of 

 moisture and thus be tough, damp, or wet. It may also 

 be frosted, dirty, musty, heating, or bin-burnt. Frosted 

 grains are known by their wrinkled skin. Heating and 

 burning in the bin so that the grains may even become 

 charred, only take place when the wheat contains too 

 much moisture. 



The different varieties of wheat, when free from ad- 

 mixtures and sound, differ from one another in their yield 



