288 THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 



the dough is soft, and requires much more kneading 

 than that of winter wheat ; this occurs from the fact 

 that it contains more gluten than the latter, and conse- 

 quently less starch ; it being thus more highly jritrogen- 

 ized, is very valuable for food, perhaps more so than 

 winter wheat. The yellow cast to some specimens of 

 flour is due to bearded wheat, as the bald varieties pro- 

 duce white flour. The excess of gluten gives the bread 

 a more brown appearance than the winter wheat, which 

 is nearly pure starch. 



" It may be interesting to many of our readers to look 

 a little into the history of spring wheat as used, or its 

 culture. Strictly speaking, we have no natural spring 

 wheat; the variety that is called such is simply an 

 artificial variety of winter wheat that can be readily 

 changed back to its normal condition. It is well to un- 

 derstand this fact, for upon it much may depend. In 

 the culture of spring wheat the nearer approach we 

 make to treating it as a biennial the better will be the 

 crop. To do this, the plant must undergo a rest that 

 is, at some early period of its growth it should come to 

 a stand for a short period. This answers to the natural 

 condition of the plant. 



" Previous to 1834, little attention was paid to this 

 trait in the habit of the plant, most farmers taking it 

 for granted that spring wheat was as distinct from that 

 of winter as an annual was from a biennial. A little 

 reflection would, however, show this folly. Was spring 

 wheat an annual it would produce good crops when 

 sown later in the season, say through the month of April, 

 or after frost has ceased to harden the surface. But we 

 all know that to produce a good crop we must sow as 

 soon as the frost begins to come out, even if we sow in 



