2SS 



THE WHEAT CULTUEIST. 



the dough is soft, and requires much more kneadiiig 

 than that of winter wheat : this occurs from the fact 

 that it contains more gluUn than the latter, and conse- 

 qnentlv less starch ; it being thns more highlv nitrogen- 

 ized. is very valuable for food, perhaps more so than 

 winter wheat. The yellow cast to some specimens of 

 flom- is due to learded wheat, as the hold varieties pro- 

 duce white flom\ The excess of gluten gives the bread 

 a more brown appearance than the winter wheat, which 

 is nearly pure starch. 



" It may be interesting to many of om* readers to look 

 a httle into the history of spring wheat as used, or its 

 cultmT. Strictly speaking, we have no natm-al spidng 

 wheat : the variety that is called snch is simply an 

 artificial variety of winter wheat that can be readily 

 changed back to its normal condition. It is well to un- 

 derstand this fact, for upon it much may depend. In 

 the cnltnre of spring ^vhieat the nearer approach we 

 make to treating it as a biennial the better will be the 

 crop. To do this, the plant must nndergo a rest — that 

 is, at some early period of its growth it should come to 

 a stand for a short period. This answers to the natm-al 

 condition of the plant. 



'•'Previous to ISoi. little attention was paid to this 

 trait in the habit of the plant, most farmers taking it 

 for granted that spring wheat was as distinct from that 

 of winter as an annual was from a bieuniaL A little 

 reflection would, however, show this tblly. TTas spring 

 wheat an anntial it would produce good crops when 

 so^vn later in the seasuu. say tlu'ough the month of April, 

 or after frost has ceased to harden the siu'face. But we 

 all know that to produce a good crop we must sow as 

 soon as the frost begins to come out. even if we so^r in 



