152 MAINE AGRICULTURAL KXPRRIMENT STATION. I903. 



may not be ])ossible in small mills In adnpt all ihv refinements 

 practiced in large estal^lishmcnts, partly for lack of machinery, 

 and partly liecause expert millers cannot be profital)lv employed 

 where the business is small. The report shows that, in addition 

 to the ordinary defects in milling, the flours were somewhat 

 deficient in gluten ; in other words, the flours were weak. 



The two lots of Minneapolis grown w'heat milled at Washburn 

 were lower in protein than the flours from this wheat should 

 have been, but they carried considerably more protein than the 

 flours made from Maine grown wheat. W'hile the amount of 

 gluten in the flour is to a certain extent determined by the 

 process of milling, in which matter may be excluded that should 

 have been retained in the flour, the deficiency in the cases exam- 

 ined is so large that it can only to a limited extent be referred 

 to this source and must rather be attributed to a lack of gluten 

 in the grain itself. 



Composition of Maine Grown Wheat. 

 The low protein content of the Maine flours naturally led to 

 the examination of several wheats grown in Aroostook county. 

 Numerous studies have been made elsewhere upon the general 

 efl:ect of climate upon the size and composition of the wheat 

 berry. The present studies can be better interpreted in the light 

 of these other investigations. The summaries of such studies 

 by a few authorities follow. 



EFFECTS OF climate UPON WHEAT. 



Schindler * has shown that the size and weight of the berry 

 of wheats of different localities depends upon the length of the 

 vegetation period, and more especially upon the length of the 

 interval between blossoming and ripening. This, as he explains, 

 is in accordance with the development of the grain as it matures, 

 which is as follows : The glumes or chaff of the berry are first 

 in order of growth ; following these, the outer fruit coating and 

 then the inner true seed coats develop, then follows the endos- 

 perm which is the richest in gluten, and later still the storage 

 tissues in the interior of the berry are formed. In regions with 

 a moist warm climate the fruiting period is prolonged and 

 abundant quantities of starch are formed in the large leaf sur- 



I 



*Der Weizeii In seinen Beziebungen zum Klinia, u. s. \v., Berlin, 1S93. 



