156 ESSAYS ON WHEAT 



or rubber-like the mass, the bigger the loaf that can be 

 made from the flour, or, in other words, the better the 

 baking qualities. The elasticity is due to the quality of 

 the gluten, a mixture of complex proteins which are present 

 in the grains along with the starch. Dr. Saunders found 

 that a few grains of the Marquis wheat, when chewed in 

 the mouth, produced an elastic mass which was rubber- 

 jlike in a high degree, and therefore concluded that Mar- 

 Iquis wheat had an excellent quality of gluten and would 

 anake large and palatable loaves. Thus, then, by a care- 

 ful series of observations extending over three years. 

 Dr. Saunders discovered that Marquis wheat behaved well 

 in plot tests in respect to the early ripening of its grains 

 and in having a good yield, and that it possessed milling 

 and baking qualities of th.e most desirable kind. 



Dr. Saunders propagated his new wheat from 1904 to 

 1906, so that it gradually increased in quantity. The few 

 I ounces of grain collected in August, 1904, in successive 

 Iharvests increased in amount in geometrical progression, 

 j,and, by the autumn of 1906, about two-thirds of a bushel 

 were available. The chewing tests for milling and baking 

 qualities were carried out systematically for three years, 

 in 1904, 1905, and 1906. Toward the close of this period, 

 a small flour mill, a fermenting-cupboard designed by Dr. 

 Saunders himself, and an oven, were set up in the cereal 

 laboratory; and with this apparatus many experiments 

 were made with different wheats with a view to obtaining 

 an accurate knowledge of the best methods of carrying out 

 milling and baking tests. By the year 1906, the crop of 

 Marquis wheat had at last increased suiBciently to permit 

 of some of it being made into flour by grinding the grains 

 in the mill, and of loaves being made by baking in the 

 oven. Rigorous tests for the milling and baking qualities 

 of Marquis, made with the new apparatus in the wdnter 



