56 Chemical Work on Canadian Wheat. 



again depends upon the concentration of sugar, the intrinsic 

 diastatic power of the dough and the concentration and nature 

 of the electrolytes. (2) The physical character of the dough 

 which depends upon the size, shape, and number of starch grains, 

 the nature and concentration of the electrolytes, since these 

 determine the physical properties of colloids present, notably the 

 gluten. The electrolytes will also direct those molecular rear- 

 rangements which occur during the baking process and which 

 give fixity and stability to the entire structure. 



X. 



CHEMICAL WORK ON CANADIAN WHEAT AND FLOUR. 



By Frank T. Shutt, M.A., F.I.C., Chemist, Dominion 

 Experimental Farms. 



A quarter of a century ago those who were taking cognisance 

 of Canadian development and progress had begun to realise that 

 Canada was destined to become one of the largest wheat-produc- 

 ing countries in the world. The North-West had been, so to 

 speak, discovered, and, at least in parts, its suitability for the 

 production of wheat of the very finest quality established. Since 

 that time the area sown to wheat in the North-Western Provinces 

 has annually increased, of late years at a phenomenal rate. Last 

 season (1908) the western plains yielded in round numbers 

 106,000,000 bushels from, approximately, 6,000,000 acres ; in 

 1902, only six years ago, the acreage in wheat was less than 

 half that sown last season, with a yield of 67,000,000 bushels. 

 The estimate for the present year (1909) for the three western 

 provinces, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, is 7,000,000 

 acres in wheat — a million acres a year. And that the possibilities 

 for the further expansion are by no means exhausted will be 

 evident from the fact that as yet but 5 per cent, or thereabouts 

 of the tillable land is under crop. 



It was the thought, therefore, that wheat was destined to 

 become, in Canada, a staple crop of the largest magnitude that 

 determined us, almost immediately on the establishment of the 

 experimental farm system, some twenty-two years ago, to devote 

 special attention in the field and laboratory to the solution of 

 problems in connection with this cereal. In this paper it will 

 only be possible to mention some of the more important investiga- 

 tions undertaken by the Chemical Division, presenting very briefly 

 the data obtained and the conclusions reached. More detailed 

 consideration of these various questions will naturally be found 

 in the annual reports and bulletins issued from the Chemical Divi- 

 sion of the Experimental Farms, and to which numerous refer- 

 ences will necessarily be rndde. 



