in gluten as to be incapable of making good flour, and that the formation of gluten is one of the latest acts in ripening of wheat, and that the early ripened berry is so deficient in gluten as to be unfit for milling. The question, then, becomes one not of physical texture but of nutritive value. The farmer resents the imputation that his grain is deficient in the most important nutritive principle, while the consumer becomes solicitous lest he may be using a flour not up to the standard in nutritive value. There would have been less heat in this discussion if the miller had frankly said that in consequence of a great change in the process of milling, wheat of a very different texture is now in demand, without attempting to drive out the wheats which had been standards of excellence by representing them so deficient in gluten as to be unfit for his use. The farmer replies: "My white winter wheat had enough gluten five years ago, and commanded the highest price. Why has it become so poor in gluten?" It is hardly fair for the miller to attempt to cover his change of base from white to flinty wheats by this flank movement of asserting that the soft wheats are deficient in gluten. But if it is true that the hard and flinty wheats alone contain the desirable quantity of gluten, and that gluten is the last principle developed in the process of ripening, it is important for all classes that the facts should be known, because in the long run the truth can wrong no one. We are told that the wheat of warm climates is richer in gluten and more flinty in texture than wheat of cold climates. Some persons seem to assume that the flinty quality of such wheat is in consequence of its large content of gluten, and that the hardness of any wheat is proportioned to its content of gluten; that since the wheat of this climate becomes more flinty by over-ripening, this change must be attended by an increase of gluten in the last stages of ripening. The composition of wheat at different periods of growth seemed to me a subject of so much importance that I determined to give it a careful investigation. In such a study it was not my desire to view the subject from the standpoint of either the farmer or the miller. My aim was to establish data rather than to formulate opinions. It seemed to me that for such an investigation the most trustworthy conditions would be furnished by chemical analysis of the wheat at different stages of growth. SELECTING SPECIMENS. A field of Clawson wheat, which appeared to be very uniform in its growth and in the quality of its soil, was selected for one set of specimens, and another similar field of Schumacher wheat for a parallel set of specimens. I decided to take two sets of specimens of different varieties of wheat in order to eliminate the influence of individual peculiarities in either variety. I began to gather my specimens on June 26, 1879, and gathered a specimen of each variety at 9 o'clock A. M. for twenty-one successive days, a period embracing the progressive changes of the berry from its early formation, and before the contents of the berry were milky in color, up to the time of dead ripeness. The Schumacher, however, was found to be somewhat in advance of the Clawson through the whole series, and the berry was in the milk at the first cutting. It seemed to keep about five days in advance of the Clawson. A small bundle of the grain was cut, labeled, and placed to ripen and dry in an airy room, so as to give the best possible conditions in harvesting, and every bundle was subjected to the same treatment in drying and ripening. When fully dry the grain was beaten out by hand, winnowed, and preserved in glass jars for chemical analysis. The grain thus ripened on the stalk, as it slowly dried in the sheltered room, was different from what it would have been if threshed out as soon as cut, but the difference was the same for all, and the grain thus matured would represent the results secured by ripening under the most favorable conditions of harvesting at the several periods of cutting. CONDITION AT TIME OF CUTTING. The following diary will give some idea of the condition and development of the berry and the ripening of the stalk at the successive periods of cutting. I also include a brief statement of the condition of the weather, which may assist in explaining the rapid changes which took place at certain stages of growth: Degree of Ripeness of Stalk and Berry Stalk green; berry watery and immature; a little milky. Stalk green, and leaves rusted slight-I ly berry very immature, somewhat milky. Berry milky and sweetish; color of berry green. Berry milky and sweet; still green in color. Berry milky, sweet, green; no dough. Straw still green; berry milky, sweet, greenish in color, no dough. Stalks green, but leaves yellow; berry more milky, sweet, yellow-green. Straw green; heads yellowish; berry yellow-green, thick milk, sweet. Stalks and heads turning yellow; berry milky-dough, sweet. Stalks and heads yellowish-green; berry less sweet and more doughy. Stalks yellowish; heads begin to bend; berry thin dough, a little sweet. Straw yellow; heads bend more; berry in the dough, only a little sweet. Heads bend over; berry stiff dough. Berry crushed dry between thumb nails; harvested to-day. Berry nearly dry and becoming hard; straw entirely ripe. Berry dry and hard; stalks a full ¡ yellow. Stalks over-ripe; berry shells on handling sheaf. Stalks becoming brittle. 16.... Stalks becoming brown and brittle. Degree of Ripeness of Stalk and Berry of Stalks green; berry milky, easily crushed by fingers, sweet. Stalk green; berry easily crushed by fingers, milky and sweet. Berry more milky, but greenish; can be crushed by fingers, sweet. Berry yellowish, milky dough; fingers stained by milk when being crushed. Straw becoming yellow; berry in milky-dough condition. Berry in the dough; crushed between thumb nails stains them. Straw purplish, but leaves green; berry in the dough and becoming yellow. Head brown; berry deep yellow, stiff dough, can be crushed by thumb nails. Berry brown, hard; difficult to crush between thumb nails. Berry crushes dry; grain harvested to-day. Straw purplish red and fully ripe. Heads bend over; stalks becoming brown and leaves dry. Ripe and over ripe. The condition of the grain after ripening on the stalk is best exhibited by the specimen of each day's cutting now placed before you. Number of Cutting. THE GROSS PRODUCT PER ACRE AT EACH CUTTING. The amount of grain as influenced by the period of cutting is a question of practical importance to the farmer. In making this estimate I confined my attention to the weight of perfectly dry berry, because I was satisfied that any variation in amount of grain, attendant upon changes during growth, arises from variation in the size and weight of the berry, and not from any change in the number of grains growing on a given area, since new grains would not form during the period of ripening, and all those already formed would pass through the successive stages of development more or less completely. In this way there were eliminated several sources of error incidental to measuring the grain produced on a given area, such as the loss of grain in handling, and from incomplete threshing, varying productiveness of different plots of soil, etc. All broken kernels and foreign substances of every kind were removed, but no grains were removed in consequence of imperfect development. The grain was then poured into the scale-pan of a delicate balance, and ten grammes carefully weighed out and the number of grains of wheat counted. This was repeated ten times for each specimen and one-tenth of the sum of the whole was taken as representing the number of kernels of wheat for the weight of ten grammes. The gross product of grain at the several stages of growth would be directly as the weight of the kernels, and inversely as the number of kernels required to produce a given weight. The average number of grains of wheat required to weigh ten grammes at the several periods of cutting is given in the following table. I have also estimated the number of bushels of grain at the different periods of cutting, on the supposition that each variety of wheat produced thirty bushels to the acre as its maximum. The table also contains the percentage of nitrogen, cellulose, and ash, at the different periods of growth: 362 7. 384 8 3:27 9. 10. 11. 276 28.69 267 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19 29.55 704 11.23 484 16.11 2.62 4.03 2.72 268 29.55 276 It will be seen that the Schumacher is about five days in advance of the Clawson; that the growth of each kind proceeds by a somewhat uneven progression, the increase of growth bearing some relation to the preceding daily temperature, because the specimens were gathered in the morning. The falling off in the seventh cutting of Clawson is curious, and I can offer no explanation. After the complete ripening of the grain there is a sensible decrease, showing that the common impression among farmers that there is diminished production of grain when harvesting is delayed too long, is well founded. This loss is not from careless handling of the grain or from drying by over-ripening. The loss is a real one, though not large. CHEMICAL ANALYSIS. The wheat was powdered by prolonged beating in an iron mortar, and sifting this in a wire sieve of 38 meshes to the inch, and this process repeated till the entire quantity taken had passed through the sieve. The amount of water in each specimen was determined by prolonged heating in the steam bath and cooling in a sulphuric acid desiccator till there was no further loss of weights, and the entire loss of weight was taken as water. The results of all analyses and other estimations are based upon water-free material. The ash was determined by prolonged burning in a shallow platinum dish, kept at a low red heat till the ash burned white, and the ash was weighed with its natural contents of carbonic acid. The percentage of ash is given in Table I, which shows a regular decline as the grain develops by formation of ash-free carbhydrates. The cellulose was estimated by boiling in water containing 14 per cent sulphuric acid, then with water and repeating process; then with 1 per cent caustic potash solution-then boiling with water and washing the crude cellulose with alcohol and ether, following Hennebergh's method. The crude cellulose was then dried in water bath to constant weight; then incinerated and the weiht of ash deducted, when the residual weight was taken as cellulose. No estimate was made of the small amount of nitrogen which it contained. The cellulose was of a light brown color. The percentage of cellulose regularly decreased from the earliest formation of the grain up to the time of ripening, the amount being greater in the first cuttings of Clawson than in those of Schumacher, because of its more immature condition. After ripening there is an increase of cellulose, showing that over-ripening is attended by a loss of nutritive material, if we consider dense cellulose as indigestible. The increase of cellulose seems to be in intimate relation to the process of hardening exhibited in dead ripening. The nitrogen was determined in the usual way by combustion with soda. lime, and the amount of albuminoids estimated by multiplying the nitrogen by 6.4. The percentage of nitrogen is given in Table I, and the estimated amount of albuminoids in the dry substance is given in Table II. By Table II. it will be seen that the highest percentage of albuminoids is formed in the earliest stages of growth, and it falls off regularly to the complete ripening of the seed, which contains relatively less albuminoids than at any previous period of growth. The claim that gluten is principally formed near the close of the process of ripening, and that the dead ripe wheat contains more gluten than wheat harvested at some earlier period of growth, receives no support from the results of these analyses. The hard and flinty berry secured by over-ripening is no richer in gluten than the soft berry secured by early harvesting. I am now speaking of the percentage composition, and claim that a hundred pounds of early ripened wheat will contain a greater number of pounds of albuminoids than will a hundred pounds of the same wheat at a later period of ripening, when the accumulation of starch and other carbhydrates will have lowered the relative amount of albuminoids. But while the albuminoids are centessimally greater at early periods of growth, the acreage product increases with the growth of the crop up to a certain stage of ripening (when the grain crushes dry), and after this period there is no increase either relatively or absolutely. If the dead-ripe wheat is better for the miller than wheat cut at an earlier period, it is in consequence of the physical properties of the flinty berry, and not from any change in the chemical composition or increase of nutritive value. CARBIYDRATES. One significant change in the process of ripening was the rapid accumulation of starch. So rapid was the accumulation of the carbhydrates, that while the albuminoids increased in actual amount the increase of carbhydrates was so much more rapid that the percentage of albuminoids fell off continually up to the period of ripening, and when the storing up of starch was completed the ripening of the grain was also complete. |