194 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY. Vol. XXL 



Indian wheats, namely, a great capacity for absorbing water in mill- 

 ing and a high percentage of flour. Their chief undesirable 

 characters are frequent unevenness in texture and colour and the 

 want of resiliency in the dough leading to small loaves with very 

 poor looking crusts and bad flavour. In consequence, Indian 

 wheats cannot be made into bread by themselves, but have to be 

 blended with strong Canadian and Russian grades. 



In improving the wheats of India for the export trade we have 

 set before us a somewhat high standard, namely, the production of 

 wheats at least equal to any on the English Market. Taking into 

 account all the factors I think we can fairly claim success as far as 

 the wheats grown at Pusa are concerned. We have succeeded in 

 growing absolutely uniform wheats high in nitrogen with firstrate 

 milling qualities and with high percentages of flour. The loaves 

 made are of the same class as those made from the strongest 

 Canadian and American grades, but are not quite so large as those 

 given by Manitoba wheat. On the other hand our best Pusa 

 wheats absorb more water in milling than the Manitoba grades 

 and give a higher percentage of flour. During the last two years 

 the new Pusa wheats sent for testing to England have been com- 

 pared with the best Canadian Spring wheats with what results 

 will be evident from the following extract from Mr. Humphries' 

 last report : — 



"The three lots, Nos. 100, 101 and 106 are very beautiful 

 wheats also. On appearance only there is little to choose between 

 them. If anything 106 may be the best looking. These three 

 and Pusa 4 all behave very well indeed in the milling processes. 

 The flours they all yield are granular, that is to say, they are 

 bread flours rather than biscuit or pudding flours, and should 

 be judged by comparison with hard spring wheat flours from 

 Minneapolis or Manitoba rather than by comparison with 

 Muzafl'arnagars or similar wheats. They are all floiirs possessing 

 great potentialities as regards baking value, which can be develop- 

 ed by proper treatment during milling and baking on the special 

 lines mentioned hereinbefore. Without this special treatment 

 they behave very well in the dough and produce loaves of fair but 

 not great volume, and of firstrate appearance and flavour. They 



