THE INFLUENCE OF AGE ON THE VITALITY AND 

 CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF THE WHEAT BERRY. 



Bv K. WHYMPER. 



{Continued from page 90.) 



Table 23. 



Analyses of some Old Samples of Wheat. 



the various ages examined, the moisture content 

 should show considerable fluctuation. 



Ash. 



Just as moisture in wheat and flour is a variable 

 according to the conditions of storage, so may also 

 the ash content of wheat be found to vary according 

 to the soil in which it is grown. 



Wheat as a general rule varies in ash content from 

 two per cent, to about one per cent, below which it 

 is extremely unlikely to fall. 



It is, therefore, of considerable interest to notice 

 that there is a gradual decrease in mineral matter 

 with age, with the exception of the 185.3 wheat 

 which contains a slightly higher quantity than that 

 of 1854, and which, in other particulars does not 

 seem to fall into line with the wheats according to 

 its age. 



Snyder {Bull. 83 Agric. Expt. Stn. Univ. 



Table 24. Composition of Flours and other Milling Products of Wheat.* 



Chemical Examination. 



Moisture. 



The percentage of moisture found in wheat is a 

 very variable quantity. In a personal letter from 

 Mr. Humphries the figures for English wheat grown 

 last year were given, and showed on an average 

 fourteen per cent of moisture in October, 1911. In 

 February, 1912, the moisture content had risen to 

 eighteen per cent., and in June, had fallen to 

 approximately sixteen per cent. Similar experience 

 has of course been the lot of every miller, and there- 

 fore it is not surprising to find that, in the wheats of 



Minnesota, 1904) found that the percentage amount 

 of ash in different wheat crops varies but little from 

 year to year, and that flour made from fully matured 

 wheat has a minimum ash content because high 

 maturity is usually accompanied by a low ash. 



This fact is forcibly borne out by the results 

 obtained with the wheats of different ages examined 

 by the present writer. 



Fat or Ether-extract. 

 A specially dried Ether was prepared for these 

 estimations and the figures may be taken as those of 



actual fatty matters extracted. 

 "Studies of Bread and Bread-making at the University of Minnesota in 1899-1900, by Harry Snyder, B.S., Washington, 1901. 



135 



