A Study of Colorado Wheat 
5 
ter, that I have seen, and in many of them it is very prevalent. I 
have treated of this condition, designated as Yellow-berry, in Bulle¬ 
tin 205 of this Station. 
Yellow-berry wheat is considered as in some way deteriorated 
wheat. I do not think that this opinion has been shown to be based 
upon any established facts. The only justification that I know of 
for it, isj the fact that such wheats, or rather kernels, are lower in 
nitrogen than flinty kernels when grown on the same plot of ground. 
It may be true that the flinty berries, richer in nitrogen, actually 
make a better flour than the yellow-berry kernels but, up to the pres¬ 
ent time, I think that this is inferred rather than proved. While 
writers, with almost no exception, assume that a high protein con¬ 
tent in wheat indicates a strong wheat, the most of them at the same 
time insist that the quality of the gluten and not its quantity is deter¬ 
minative of the value of the flour for bread-making purposes. Colo¬ 
rado wheats are not deficient in nitrogen according to 1 the informa¬ 
tion at present obtainable; even those samples affected with yellow- 
berry, while lower in nitrogen than samples containing only flinty 
berries, are not so deficient as to indicate inferiority in the essential 
quality of break-making. The inference, so far as I have been able 
to ascertain, has not even been based upon the lower nitrogen con¬ 
tent, but is a general assertion based upon the assumption that the 
yellow-berry is an abnormality. 
The Californian wheats are generally spoken of as soft, weak 
wheats, but are commended for their color and flavor. We find 
the nitrogen content given for Club, 2.064; White Australian, 
1.936; and Propo, 1.918 percent.* These figures are as high as we 
find given for the hard wheats. 
In comparing data concerning protein present it is to be remembered that 
all of the older data is based on the factor 6.25, while much of the more recent 
data is based on the factor 5.7. The former makes the protein 1.1 times as 
much as the latter. 
Notwithstanding the fair percentage of nitrogen present in our 
Colorado wheats, the general experience is that it is not of high 
bread-making qualities. The second task that we set ourselves in 
this bulletin is to determine the properties and characteristics of our 
wheats as they are produced for the markets. We shall first con¬ 
sider our soil conditions and the effects of the individual elements, 
nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. 
We shall use the term “weak wheat" to designate one which 
yields a flour of low bread-making quality without regard to wheth¬ 
er it is soft or hard and we shall use the term “soft” to indicate a 
wheat whose kernels crush easily without regard to its bread-mak¬ 
ing quality—so we shall have the two pairs of characters, weak and 
♦California Bulletin 212, p. 366. 
