Wheat Investigations. 3 



the order named. The Red Fife and Bluestem furnished a 

 number of strains with good quality glutens while the Preston 

 and Marquis yielded a large percentage of strains with fair to 

 poor quality of gluten. The Minnesota lines, with the excep- 

 tion of the durum and Marquis wheat yielded a strong elastic 

 gluten of good quality. 



The baking test showed very marked variations in the flour 

 strength of the different pure lines, the volume of bread loaf, 

 baked from 340 grams of flour, ranging from 1518 to 2221 cubic 

 centimeters. A number of strains produced bread possessing 

 a good volume and very good appearance, good to very good 

 texture and color of crumb, and excellent eating qualities. Some 

 of the Minnesota strains produced a very good volume and 

 showed very good baking quality. 



The available data indicate that strains of wheat of good 

 quality can be isolated and successfully grown under Aroos- 

 took conditions. 



Introduction. 



One of the most perplexing problems connected with agri- 

 cultural crops is the quality of wheat. Though wheat has per- 

 haps a wider range of distribution throughout the world than 

 any other crop, yet the regions in which strong wheats of best 

 quality are successfully grown, are very distinct and rather lim- 

 ited. This relation between the quality of wheat and the en- 

 vironment is of greatest concern primarily to the plant breeder 

 who attempts the improvement of the strength of wheat in re- 

 gions outside the natural districts of the hard red wheats. It 

 is a well known fact that the majority of wheats grown in the 

 forested regions of the northeast are at best semi-hard and do 

 not come up in their bread-making quality to the high standards 

 of the wheats grown in the prairie regions of the Northwest 

 and Russia. As a direct effect of the influence of the environ- 

 ment upon the wheat grain it has been frequently observed that 

 when some of the hard vitreous wheats from the prairie regions 

 are introduced into localities marked by a cool summer, abun- 

 dant rainfall and high relative moisture, they tend to lose their 

 translucency and horny texture and assume a plump, dull opaque 

 appearance. 



