110 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII, 
province these crop notes do not deal are bearded wheats, and as the crop is 
trodden out by cattle, the fodder must be broken very fine indeed to prevent the 
awns sticking in the gullets of the cattle, ‘The bruising is well done by the 
steam thresher, which largely separates the innutritious awns from the chaff. 
Spelt straw is almost inedible by cattle. 
Wheat is a rotation crop generally, but the red -dry wheat of the Bhal country 
of Ahmedabad is always, andthe pivia of Nasik and Ahmednagar, is some- 
times, grown continuously. 
Wheat in this country is exceedingly liable to damage from weevil, especial- 
ly if storage in Bombay is attempted. It is preserved with great skill in grain 
pits, and it may be noticed that in Guzerat the preservation is improved by 
throwing a handful of quicksilver into a large pit. Samples in airtight bottles 
with quicksilver in very minute quantities can be kept sound for years. The 
high specific eravity of the mercury makes separation very easy and complete. 
As to the composition of wheat, the following extract is taken from Church’s 
<“ Food Grains of India,” p. 93 :— 
“The composition of wheat grain shows some variations, but they are 
almost entirely limited to the relative proportions of starch and of nitrogenous 
matters, although the mineral matters or ash, and indeed all the minor consti- 
tuents of the grain, are, of course, not quite fixed in amount. Stillif a wet season 
increases the percentage of ash, if a thin-skinned, well-developed sample contains 
less fibre, and if a plump dark-coloured specimen has a larger proportion of 
oil or fat, all such variations are quite unimportant in comparison with those 
exhibited by the starch and albuminoids. The starch, always constituting as it 
does something like two-thirds of the weight of the grain, does not show the 
difference in go marked a manner as the albuminoids. If the latter amount to 
18 to 20 per cent. instead of 13, the former constituent will not be reduced 
(from 68) to less than 63 or 61 per cent.—a reduction which, in comparison 
with the total amount present, is much less conspicuous than a rise from 13 to 
20 in the nitrogenus compounds,” 
Besides the general dryness of the grain of Indian wheat, which as imported 
in bulk in this country and analyzed properly contains at least 2 per cent. less 
moisture than average English wheat, the albuminoids are decidedly higher. I 
have never yet met with an Indian wheat containing less than 10 per cent. of 
albuminoids ; but a large number of samples of first rate English, Canadian and 
Australian samples give numbers between 8 and 9. The average percentage of 
albuminoids in the Indian examples yeb analyzed is about 13°5, but some 
specimens haye been as low as 10°3 and some as high as 16°7. 
