I9i i.] 
Indian Wheat. 
i33 
influenced by its cleanness, purity, quality, uniformity, dry- 
ness, milling quality, strength, and colour. 
Cleanness means the absence of useless impurities. 
Pureness means the absence of grains of other food plants. 
Quality depends upon care in harvesting and absence of 
damaged or immature grains. 
Uniformity denotes the absence of varietal differences. 
The milling quality desired by the miller is found in a 
wheat, on the one hand, neither too woolly and tough, nor, 
on the other, too flinty and hard. 
Strength is defined as the capacity of making large and 
shapely loaves. (There is some dispute among experts as to 
what physical characteristics this quality is dependent on ; 
there appears to be little doubt, however, that it is connected 
in some degree with the presence or absence of phosphates in 
the grain. It is in this quality that most home-grown wheats 
are deficient.) 
In this list the factors of direct interest to the agriculturist 
are uniformity, milling quality, and strength. The most 
important factor of all to the farmer is naturally absent from 
the above catalogue, and that is, cropping power. It is 
obvious that a difference of five shillings per quarter is of little 
importance to the home agriculturist if he can increase his out- 
turn by more than 10 bushels per acre, but it should not be 
assumed, as it is often done, that the superiority of foreign 
wheats in, say, strength, or milling quality, is wholly due to 
climatic causes. The little scientific work that has been done 
in this country in connection with this subject goes to show 
that there is no reason why high cropping capacity should not 
be associated with better quality from the miller's point of 
view. It should also be borne in mind that while much is 
known as to difference of variety, as judged by external char- 
acters, very little has been done in distinguishing varieties 
when classified according to their crop-producing or other 
economic qualities only. The improvements that can be 
effected by a thorough study of economic qualities of varieties 
can be illustrated by the work done by the botanical experts 
in the service of the Government of India. Sir James Wilson 
reproduces a report by a leading miller in this country on 
some samples of wheat selected from the many varieties culti- 
