156 



Improvement of Wheat. 



[JUNE, 



purpose in assisting the small cultivator and village labourer, 

 who are frequently hampered by the want of sufficient capital. 

 All the societies are affiliated with the Agricultural Organisation 

 Society, Dacre House, Dacre Street, Westminster, S.W., from 

 whom particulars as to the methcd of starting such a society 

 can be obtained. 



The Home-Grown Wheat Committee of the National 

 Association of British and Irish Millers, which was appointed 



in] 1902 for the purpose of studying the 

 Experiments question of quality in home-grown wheat, 

 Imp^vement ^ as ^ een concm cting experiments with 

 of Wheat- home and foreign varieties and the effect 



of crossing and manuring, with a view to 

 the production of a class of wheat which could be cultivated in 

 this country and which would approach in " strength " the hard 

 wheats of North-West America, Southern Russia, Roumania, 

 Hungary, and elsewhere. " Strength," or the capacity to make 

 a large loaf, is an element which is comparatively deficient in 

 English wheat, and is the main factor in causing even the 

 best grain to fetch a distinctly lower price than the best quali- 

 ties of wheat from Manitoba, Kansas, or Russia. This, it may 

 be remembered, was explained and illustrated by photographs 

 in a previous article,* which gave an account of an enquiry 

 conducted into the chemical qualities of various flours, with 

 the object, if possible, of determining the cause of strength in 

 wheat. 



At a meeting of the Association in April last, Mr. Humphries, 

 on behalf of the Committee, gave particulars of their work 

 during the past year, a summary of which is given below. 



Mr. Humphries pointed out that the wheats grown last year 

 were no stronger, perhaps not quite so strong, as the samples 

 that were fit to mill in the previous year. Having regard to 

 the extraordinary rainfall in 1903 and the unusual amount 

 of sunshine in 1904, it is obvious that the amount of summer 



* Journal, Vol. IX., Sept., 1904, p. 321. 



