Wheat Investigations. 31 



Royalton (White) and Royalton (Red) suffered only a loss of 

 0.40 and 1.36 per cent, respectively. The grain of the durum 

 lines showed also the most marked deterioration in the physical 

 characteristics. This tendency of the durum wheats to rapidly 

 deteriorate under Aroostook conditions was also borne out by 

 the results from the 1918 crop which will be considered below. 

 A comparison of the average protein content of the Aroos- 

 took wheat lines with the average protein content of the chief 

 classes of American wheats as given by L. M. Thomas 20 is of 

 interest. In his extensive investigations made in the Office of 

 Grain Standardization and involving several hundreds of samples, 

 Thomas found the average crude protein content of the soft 

 red winter, durum, hard red winter, and hard red spring wheats 

 to be: 10.6, 14.3, 12. 1, 12.9 per cent, respectively. The average 

 crude protein content of the Aroostook pure lines of wheat grown 

 in 1917 was found to be 13.81 per cent or nearly 1 per cent high- 

 er than the average for the class of hard red spring wheats as 

 given by Thomas. 



Chemical Analysis of The Pure Lines Grown in 1918. 



At the stage of propagation of the pure lines reached with 

 the harvest of the 191 8 crop there was enough seed to make a 

 complete chemical analysis and baking tests of these wheats. 

 Of the 99 lines grown in 1917 only 44 were continued in 1918 

 and of these 40 were subjected to a chemical analysis. This 

 reduction was due to the elimination of strains lacking in pro- 

 tein or in strength of straw and other desirable physical 

 characteristics. The results of the chemical analysis of the 40 

 lines are presented in Table 7. The lines within each variety 

 are grouped according to their protein content. 



A study of the data in Table 7 will reveal first a general 

 lowering of the average protein content of the pure lines as com- 

 pared with the protein content of the 1917 crop. The variation 

 in the average protein content ranges from 11.76 to 13.30 per 

 cent as against 13.29 to 14.36 per cent for the 1917 crop when 



20 Thomas, L. M. A Comparison of Several Classes of American 

 Wheats and a Consideration of Some Factors Influencing Quality. U. S. 

 Dept. Agr. Bu. of Plant Ind. and Bu. of Markets 1917, Bui. 557, pp. 1-28. 



