MILLING AND BAKING TESTS OF WHEAT. 7 



that a single plant of corn cocklo lias been known to yield as high 

 as 2,500 seeds shows it to be an exceedingly prolific and obnoxious 

 weed, which every farmer should strive to eradicate or prevent from 

 getting a start if the farm is not infested. 



In milling wheat containing but 1 per cent of corn cockle, black 

 specks, which are finely broken pieces of the outer covering of the 

 seed, appear in the flour. When milled alone, corn-cockle seed will 

 yield from 45 to 50 per cent of flour having a bluish white color and 

 a specky appearance. Baking tests of three grades of flour milled 

 from wheat containing 10 per cent of corn cockle indicated that this 

 impurity was well distributed in each grade of flour (Table VI, 

 p. 16). 



Figure 2 represents a sample of spring wheat obtained by the 

 writer from a farmer's wagon as the grain was unloaded at a country 

 grain elevator. The mechanical analysis of this sample showed it to 

 contain by weight 6 per cent of corn cockle, 1 per cent of wild buck- 

 wheat, and 7.7 per cent of other grains, which consisted of oats, 

 wild oats, and barley. 



The presence of such an amount (6 per cent) of corn cockle in this 

 wheat resulted in a loss to the farmer, not only in the lower price per 

 bushel which he received but in addition a dockage was assessed. 



This term ' ' dockage ' ' is used with reference to the foreign matter 

 present in wheat when marketed. It is the custom in the States 

 producing spring wheat which contains a considerable quantity of 

 foul weeds and other foreign matter to deduct from the gross weight 

 of the load a certain amount expressed in pounds per bushel. For 

 example, if a load of 50 bushels of wheat is found to contain 2 pounds 

 of foreign matter for each bushel, then 100 pounds is deducted from 

 the gross weight, and the owner of the grain receives pay for 50 

 bushels less the 100 pounds of dockage, or 48 bushels and 20 pounds 

 of wheat. 



KINGHEAD, OR GREAT RAGWEED. 



Kinghead (Ambrosia triftda) is an annual weed belonging to the 

 ragweed family, which grows very rank, from 3 to 15 feet high, in 

 moist soil. Consequently, it is found more frequently and much 

 more abundantly in river valleys and in sections where the ground 

 lies low and where there is a good supply of moisture than in well- 

 drained areas or sections with a light rainfall. According to Britton 

 and Brown, this weed is widely distributed over the United States. 

 However, it seems to be a greater pest in the Northwest, especially 

 in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota, than in the other 

 wheat-producing States. 



On account of its shape and size (fig. 1) this seed, like corn cockle, 

 is difficult to clean out of the wheat. One means of removing it, in 



