WHEAT OF SOUTH OF EUROPE. 



457 



Sir H. Davy long ago remarked that the wheat of warm 

 climates abounds more in gluten (gluten-fibrine, gluten-caseine, 

 and gluten) and in insoluble parts than that of colder climates, 

 and therefore that it is of greater specific gravity, harder, and 

 more difficult to grind. " The wheat of the south of Europe, in 

 consequence of the larger proportion of gluten which it con- 

 tains," he says, " is peculiarly fitted for making macaroni and 

 other preparations of flour in which a glutinous quality is con- 

 sidered an excellence." He adds, that the hard or thin-skinned 

 wheat is in much higher estimation in the south of Europe 

 than the soft or thick-skinned wheat, owing to the same greater 

 abundance of nutritive matter in the former. In connection 

 with this difference it may be useful to refer to an elaborate 

 analysis of growing wheat at different stages, by Professor 

 Thomas Anderson, in a season in which the ripening was very 

 much retarded.* 



The grains, after being kept till they had become dry, 

 afforded the following constituents : 



9.34 



* See ' Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society,' vol. from 

 July 1861 to March 1863, p. 383 et seq. 



