COMPARISON" OF AMERICAN WHEATS. 5 



cubic centimeters and the texture 90. The texture is uneven, a little 

 coarse, and the cell walls are somewhat thick. Loaves c and d are 

 of the type ordinarily produced from hard red winter and hard 

 red spring wheats. The volume of loaf c is 2,330 cubic centi- 

 meters and the texture 94; it is somewhat uneven but the cell walls 

 are fairly thin. Loaf d has a volume of 2,660 cubic centimeters and 

 a texture which, although a little uneven, is scored 97, since the cell 

 walls are very thin. Loaf e has a volume of 1,950 and a coarse tex- 

 ture, which is scored 88. 



WATER ABSORPTION. 



Capacity for water absorption is of some commercial importance 

 and is determined by measuring the water added in mixing the 

 dough. It is important because of its relation to the weight of the 

 baked loaf, as will be brought out further in the following pages. 

 It might be considered as one element in the strength of flour if 

 the definition were changed to include, besides requirements for 

 lightness and texture of loaf, a requirement for a high yield of bread 

 per unit quantity of flour. 



CLASSES OF WHEAT STUDIED. 



In all, five distinct classes of wheats, grown in various sections 

 of the United States, have been studied; but the main part of this 

 report will be confined to the four classes to which more time has 

 been given. The five classes are as follows : 



(1) Soft red winter wheat, or "reel winter," as it is better known on the 

 market, is the principal class of wheat grown in sections east of the Mississippi 

 River, in the State of Missouri, and in parts of the States adjoining to the 

 west and south. 



(2) Hard red winter wheat is grown chiefly in Nebraska, Kansas, and parts 

 of Oklahoma and Montana, although small quantities are grown in the ad- 

 joining States. 



(3) Hard red spring wheat is grown in North Dakota, Minnesota, South 

 Dakota, and Montana. This wheat is more generally known commercially as 

 northern spring wheat. 



(4) Durum wheat is grown in about the same territory as hard red spring 

 wheat and to a limited extent in the southern Great Plains area and Inter- 

 mountain and Pacific Coast States. 



(5) White wheats are grown to a comparatively small extent in some of 

 the Eastern States and more generally in the Intermountain and Pacific Coast 

 States. Only a limited amount of work was done on this class of wheats, 

 and in this report reference will be made only to some factors relating to the 

 quality of the flour produced from them. 



There are other classes of wheats, particularly the western red 

 wheats, both spring and fall sown, of which no mention will be 

 made in the following pages. 



