Yellow-berry in Wheat 
5 
fected by yellow-berry are, especially when the whole berry is in¬ 
volved, white, or, if the outer covering is highly colored, yellowish. 
They are always opaque. This is an extreme condition. The 
whole of the berry may not be involved, and then the portion not 
involved is translucent. The Defiance, a spring wheat, is normally 
a medium amber colored, translucent wheat, but when affected by 
the yellow-berry may be wholly of a dull white color and opaque. 
I really do not know the proper classification of our Defiance wheat. 
It certainly belongs to the light colored spring wheats, but it can¬ 
not be said to be low in nitrogen as it ranges from 1.8 to 2.4 per 
cent, for samples taken over two 1 consecutive years. If we express 
this in terms of protein we have, using 6.25 as our factor, from 
11.25 to 15.0 percent protein, or using 5.7 as a factor, we have 
from 10.26 to 13.08 percent protein, so that there seems to be a 
satisfactory amount of protein present and the starch cannot be ex¬ 
cessively high. Still a normal kernel of this wheat is a very differ¬ 
ent thing from one wholly affected with the yellow-berry which is 
white, opaque, and has a certain roughness, the appearance of a 
loose structure. All such kernels when crushed between the teeth 
are soft and mealy. 
The affection may occur in one or in both halves of the kernel 
as a sharply defined spot, either large or small, SO' that we find the 
kernels designated as “spotted.” One-half of the kernel may be in¬ 
volved throughout or there may be a strip along the back of the 
kernel. When viewed in transmitted light, we often observe the 
affection as small, opaque spots, or one-half of the berry is either 
opaque or more or less strongly clouded. It follows that when 
viewed in transmitted light, we have kernels wholly translucent, 
translucent with dark spots, one-half translucent, or cloudy and 
wholly opaque. 
Writers on this subject are agreed that it is a more or less 
serious affection. They also agree in regard to its appearance, but 
when they come to consider the cause of it they are not agreed at 
all. So far as I can find, only three of the works mentioned assign 
any cause. Prof. H. L. Bolley in the North Dakota Station report, 
1904, part I, pp. 35-36, seems to have been the first to assign a def¬ 
inite cause for -it. It seems, however, to have been referred to be¬ 
fore this, but in such a general way that subsequent explanation 
is required to definitely relate the statements to this affection. Prof. 
Bolley says: 
“Considerable attention has been given to the cause of starchy, 
spotted grains in hard winter wheats, the trouble being known locally as 
‘White belly.’ Grains of this character are generally graded as soft 
wheats and are believed to be inferior to the hard wheats of the North- 
