YELLOW-BERRY IN WHEAT—ITS CAUSE AND 
PREVENTION 
By Wm. P. Headden 
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In the prosecution of the study of Colorado wheats which we 
now have been carrying on for two years, we find that the condi¬ 
tion designated as yellow-berry constitutes one phase of it which we 
think is of sufficient interest to justify us in presenting it at this 
time. 
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The question is in no way a new one, still there seems to be 
considerable confusion regarding it, while its cause has been as¬ 
signed to very different agencies and no positive claim made to 
any direct means for its prevention. 
The term “yellow-berry” is used to designate a condition of 
the wheat kernel which gives it a mottled appearance, due to in¬ 
ternal white spots. In bad cases, the whole berry may be affected, 
when its color will vary from white to a light yellow according to 
the color of the outer layers or covering of the kernel. Such ker¬ 
nels are more or less opaque when viewed in transmitted light. 
Normal kernels are uniformly flinty or glassy in appearance and 
are translucent when viewed in transmitted light. 
I do not know when the first mention of it was made, but it 
evidently existed in Hungary in 1900, for Kosutany in his work on 
“Der Ungarische Weizen und das Ungarishe Meld” makes definite 
mention of flinty, mealy and half mealy kernels. I take it further 
that his expression “degree of mealiness,” as applied to wheat, is 
probably nothing else than the extent to which the grain was affected 
by what we call yellow-berry. I suppose that it was well known 
before this, for it is spoken of in such matter of fact way, with¬ 
out further description or definition, that one assumes it to have 
been considered by the author as a familiar subject. This, how¬ 
ever, is the first mention o<f it that I know of in such a, way as to 
indicate a general condition of a crop. As just stated, there is no 
further comment on its characteristics. The grain is specified as 
flinty, mealy and half-mealy. There is no question but that these 
different kinds of kernels occur in the same variety and lot of 
wheat for the percentage of each kind of kernel is given. Schinder 
in Der Getreidebau, 1907, also mentions mealy and half-mealy 
kernels. 
The next definite mention that I find of it was by H. L. Bolley, 
South Dakota Station Report 1904, pp. 35-36. Next by Lyon and 
Keyser, Nebraska Bulletin 89, 1905. These authors seem to have 
