1904.] 



Quality in Wheat. 



325 



to admit the correctness of these deductions on the ground that 

 gliadin and glutenin did not possess any real individuality, but 

 were products split off from the general mass of the wheat 

 proteids according to the method of preparation employed. 

 Kjeldahl, for example, showed that the amount of " gliadin " 

 •obtainable from flour varied with the strength of the alcohol 

 employed, and Kosutany failed to obtain any consistent agree- 

 ment between the baking trials of various flours and the 

 gliadin-glutenin ratio as determined in the laboratory. Even 

 the results quoted by Snyder in the Minnesota bulletin above 

 mentioned do not all bear out the conclusions he drew from 

 them. 



For the purposes of the Committee of the National Association 

 of Millers, which began its work for the improvement of the 

 strength of English wheat in 1902, it was desirable to obtain 

 not only as much information as possible as to the causes of 

 strength but also a laboratory method for its determination on 

 a small sample of wheat. Although the conversion of a given 

 wheat into flour and afterwards baking it, forms the only ultimate 

 test of its strength, it is obviously impossible to subject any large 

 number of samples to such an examination every season. Yet 

 if satisfactory results are to be obtained by cross-breeding, it 

 will be necessary to subject great numbers of seedlings to 

 selection, and the earlier the stage in their propagation this can 

 be done the more can be passed under review. If every variety 

 has to be grown on until it yields a bushel or so of grain for 

 grinding, much more time and space would be required than if 

 the test can be applied to a handful only of grain. What is 

 wanted, then, is some laboratory test applicable to an ounce or 

 two of wheat, which, though not final, would enable the 

 experimenter to make a first selection and reject nine-tenths 

 ot his "seedlings as showing no improvement on the current 

 varieties. A large number of samples of wheat were being 

 grown for the Committee, and were to be ground and baked 

 separately, so it was decided at the same time to subject them 

 all to chemical examination. In addition to the determination 

 of gluten and of total nitrogen in the flour, determinations 

 were made of the gliadin, the nitrogenous material soluble in 

 water both directly and after fifteen hours' digestion with water 



