336 . Canadian Record of Science. 



mer, i.e., summer of 1886, has shown traces of softness. 

 The theory that this was caused by the extreme drought 

 would be tenable if other localities in the Province had 

 been affected in like manner, but other sections which last 

 season produced wheat verging on soft have this season 

 grown wheat of increased hardness. Specimens of wheat 

 last fall, raised from No. 1 selected seed, showed from 40 

 p.c. to 50 p.c. soft. The wheat had a peculiar mottled 

 appearance, some of the kernels being partly hard and 

 partly soft. This was the case in many lots around Portage 

 la Prairie. Still another point in this connection : spring 

 wheat is always harder and yields a stronger flour than 

 fall wheat. The Bureau of Chemistry, already referred to, 

 reports that a sample of Dakota spring yields 14.35 p.c. 

 albuminoids, whilst a fall variety from the same territory 

 contains only 10.68 p.c. The analyst adds, "The weight 

 of one hundred grains of the winter variety was 3.513 

 grams; of the spring grain, 2.755 grams. The smallness 

 of size and richness in albuminoids may be due to a lack of 

 starch owing to short period of growth and rapid maturity, 

 and consequent inability to assimilate as much of the carbo- 

 hydrates as the winter wheat." * 



I may add that I am told by a gentleman who has trav- 

 elled extensively through Manitoba and the Northwest, that 

 when in a hard-wheat locality the grain does show signs 

 of softness, it is in the grain grown on higher lands that 

 softness first appears. 



Turning now our attention to flour, we must remember 

 that almost, if not, indeed, all merchant milling is con- 

 ducted by roller milling process. In this process, the grain 

 is passed through a series of rolls until the floury portion 

 is separated from the germ and the coats, with whatever 

 foreign matter may be adhering to the latter. The duty of 

 the first set of rolls is to split the wheat along the crease, 

 so that foreign matter within it may be removed by special 

 appliances. The floury portion of the grain is separated 

 from the coats in large particles, and these particles known 



* Bulletin, No. 4, p. 19. 



