62 Chemical Work on Canadian Wheat. 



might explain this improvement, a considerable amount cf 

 chemical work has been done on a series of wheats and flours 

 stored under ordinary conditions by the Cerealist for the purpose 

 of determining the influence of age on bread-making value. The 

 storage period was sixteen months, three of the series being kept 

 both as grain and flour, and four as grain only. 



The Cerealist found that "when the material is kept over in 

 the form of flour there is a more rapid improvement in colour 

 and in strength than when it is kept as wheat. In every instance 

 there was a gain in water-absorbing power, and, as a rule, this 

 gain was considerable. There was also invariably an improve- 

 ment in the shape of the loaf." The chemical data indicated a 

 slight increase in the protein content, this increase being more 

 marked in samples which had been kept over as flour. The prob- 

 able explanation of these phenomena is that the carbo-hydrates are 

 being continually oxidised, the rate of oxidation being determined 

 by the area of surface exposed. 



A slight improvement in the physical characters of the gluten 

 from the stored wheats and flours was remarked, the improvement 

 being more noticeable in the weaker members of the series. 



A tendency towards an increase in gliadin was observed, 

 showing a certain amount of parallelism between protein content 

 and gliadin.* 



The Influence of Environment on the Composition of Wheat. 



While it has been held that the composition of the crop is 

 determined largely by that of the parent seed — in other words, 

 that heredity is a potent, possibly in some cases the dominant, 

 factor in influencing the character of the seed, it seems neverthe- 

 less true also that environment has a most marked effect on the 

 grain. The term environment here is naturally used in its widest 

 sense, and would include the influences exerted by climatic condi- 

 tions, nature, and culture of soil, &c. 



It has been a matter of common observation that wheat grown 

 on newly cleared scrub-land in certain districts of the North- 

 West is more or less " soft " or starchy in character. The seed 

 sown may be No. i Hard or No. i Northern — hard, semi-trans- 

 lucent, and glutinous- — and the product on such soils will, as a 

 rule, contain a proportion of kernels with whitish, opaque spots — 

 piebald wheat — indicating clearly a deterioration in quality from 

 a commercial point of view. With cultivation of the soil this 

 tendency to produce soft, starchy wheat apparently disappears, 

 the character of the wheat generally improving, so that after a 

 number of years the quality of the wheat grown may be greatly 

 superior, as measured by protein content, to that which is at 



* Retort of Chemist, Exp. Farms, 1908-09, pp. 149, 150. 



