332 



Quality in Wheat. 



[SEPT., 



Again, as we have seen, " strength " is generally associated 

 with a high nitrogen content, yet the wheats grown on some of 

 the Rothamsted plots, where so large an excess of nitrogenous 

 manure is applied that even the grain becomes more nitro- 

 genous, instead of becoming stronger only get incredibly weak. 

 The photograph (Fig. 6) illustrates such a case, showing a 

 comparison of the wheat from the unmanured Plot 3 with 1*23 

 per cent, of nitrogen in the flour, and the wheat from the 

 Plot 2 that is dunged every year, which yields flour containing 

 1*69 per cent, of nitrogen, the standard English mixture being 

 set alongside for comparison. Again, Plot 10, at Rothamsted, 



Fig. 6. 



manured with ammonium salts only, yields wheat of a high 

 nitrogen content and possessing all the external characteristics 

 of a very " strong" wheat, so that- it regularly has been set down 

 as much superior to the others by the professional valuers who 

 have examined the Rothamsted wheats. On baking it was found, 

 both in 1902 and in 1903, the weakest of all, in spite of the 

 fact that in both cases it had been harvested in better condition 

 than the others. During the current season it happened that 

 the flour from this plot was baked several times at regular 

 intervals, and it was found to be steadily improving, rising, in 

 fact, from a merely nominal mark in November up to a mark of 

 40 or 50 in June. The flour from the unmanured plot, tried at 



