22 THE BOOK OF WHEAT 



from one spike in four years to sow about 500 acres. 1 In ter 

 years, one grain of North Dakota wheat, now known as Minne- 

 sota 163, without any attempt to increase it rapidly the first 

 few years, actually produced about 300,000 bushels of wheat 

 One thousand acres of land south of Walla Walla in easterr 

 Washington yielded 51,000 bushels in 1881. "This yield was 

 made the subject of a careful measurement and reported to the 

 Agricultural Department, where it stands today as the largest 

 yield for a thousand-acre field ever reported. " z The greatest 

 wheat crop ever recorded in the world's history as being pro- 

 duced from unfertilized land was that of western Canada in 

 1901, where 63,425,000 bushels were harvested from a little 

 over 2,500,000 acres; an average yield of over 25 bushels per 

 acre. 



Physical Properties. The number of grains in a pound of 

 wheat varies from 7,500 to 24,000; from 377 determinations 

 the average was 12,000 grains. The number in a bushel has 

 been given as varying from 446,580 to 971,940. The Winches- 

 ter bushel (2150.42 cubic inches) used in the United States, has 

 a standard and legal weight of 60 pounds. The measured 

 bushel generally varies in weight from 54 to 65 pounds, and 

 greater extremes occur. The Imperial bushel (2218.192 cubic 

 inches) used in England, has a corresponding weight of 61.89 

 pounds. This is the reason why English wheat appears heavier 

 than American grain. 



The specific gravity of American wheat has been found to 

 vary from 1.146 to 1.518. Lyon found high specific gravity 

 associated with low nitrogen content. As a rule, the harder 

 the grain, the higher is the gluten and nitrogen content, and 

 the deeper red the color. 



Viability of Wheat. Experiments have shown the optimum 

 period for germination to be the second year after harvest. 

 Seed one year old often gives better results than fresh seed, 

 but after the first year the viability generally diminishes rapidly 

 from year to year. Ordinarily it is not advisable to sow wheat 

 over two, or at the most three, years of age, at least not with- 

 out testing its germinating powers, which have been found to 

 vary from 15 to 75 per cent after five years. The longest 



1 Neb. Bui. 32, p. 84. 



2 Kept. Bureau of Statistics, Washington, 1903, p. 69. 



