Great Falls weekly tribune., 1896-04-17
HARD WHEAT.

VIM. Atkinson, Manager of the Royal
Mill, Tells Something About wheat.
My paper on the hard wheat of Cas-
cade county will treat upon that subject
strictly from the commercial and manu-.
featuring point of view, and will not
bear upon the trials and tribulations Of
the farmer.
My experience with wheat in Montana
dates back to 1893, in the spring of
which year the Royal Milling company
shipped a quantity Of hard wheat from
North Dakota and placed it with d num-
ber of the farmers of Cascade county to
be used for seeding purposes. This
wheat was Of the hard Fife variety and
the very best for the purpose desired.
1t was planted on both bench and bot
tom land, and the result is what we are
now interested in.
The wheat grown on bench land and
delivered to the mill in the fall of 1893
represented some of the finest wheat |
have ever seen, it being plump, we'll
filled, and containing in large percent
age that quality of the wheat which is
the delight of miller's heart-giuten-
aud gluten, to milers idea, is the
characteristic above all others that he
desires to have represented IN his flour.
Gluten to him means strength, and if he
finds his wheat to contain large per-
centage of that valuable property he Is
correspondingly happy, for he Knows
that with a stronger Hour than hie COM
petitor he can knock HIM out every time,
And gluten, | say, is what we found, to
d satisfactory degree, in the wheat
grown on the benches Of Cascade
county; without irrigation irrigated
wheat, on the contrary, we find to be OF
softer quality than that which IS not
irrigated, although, with judlCious USE
Of water i'll lrrigaLlng, We do not think
the difference III The quality OF the
wheat would be So great as IS represented
by the figures given below. Inese tig-
urcs represent the percentage Of gluten
obtained from various samples OF wheat
grown in this vicinity as compared with
samples of Dakota wheat. 1t must he
borne in mind thai Il kernel OF wheat
contains starch and gluten as its two
principal properties, or ingredients, and,
tor Instance, the Wheats OF the Pacific
slope, which are very white, very soft
anu make Il chalky, !lfeleSs flour, have
starch as the principal ingredient and
the gluten IS notable from It's absence
\ sample Of CallorulH soft, or white
wheat Will contain but ! per cent ul
gluten: whereas, Dakota wheat Wlll
nave an average o. more than 10 pc.
cent Of that valuable characteristic.
/ he figures already referred to by nae
are the result Of tests made un wheat
that had not been specially selected for
the purpose, amt they were taken lndls-
crImluaIely from Il large line of samples:
Dakota Wheat
Hard, tested. l492 per cent. gluten
l Nov, q" ..... l4.J}
Montana Bench Land Wheat--
| lizard, PARIS Gibson ..... l6.1-- per cent
W. Is. Daniel el....,lJ,-'
Irrigated Bench
Mr.. Morgan 1910 per cent
Bottom Land Wheat
| Nov, w. j. kanton ......lt. al per cent
| j. M. Conner. W.
h. M. Gibson. ..... . IL
BY these figures you Will observe the
excellent results outalned from raising
wheat on our benches, without irrigation.
and, where conditions are favorable,
favor this method every time. Where
water is used artiticialiy and supplies are
always available, the natural Tendency is
to use it freely on the growing plant, and
to the delrlment OF the wheat berry, as
an excessive use of water undoubtedly
has the effect of making soft berry, no
matter how nard the seed may be to start
with. Our figures also show thai low
percentage OF gluten is obtained from
bottom land wheat, which of course re-
ceives more moisture than wheat grown
on the benches.
We will now show the difference in
value between hard and soft wheuts us
represented by the prices obtained for
the different louFe.
The price obtained for hard wheat
flour at the present time viii average -
pcr cWt., and the soft wheat flour, 81 10
per cWt. ii difference of iUc. per cwt, or
II ~ Yer barrel Take tive bushels as
tine uuantity of wheat necessary to make |
"A luTgel of flour and We will lind that |
hard wheat nets ua just !oc. per hushcI
over the soft wheat, certainly Il tine argu- !
meut II favor OF tho former Sare.y ihe
reason for fhis wide adherence ~ The
value Of two whe&ts Gun only be account
ed for by the value placed upon the
flour by the consumer, and this, Of
course, must be the correct way OF de-
termInIng same.
Flour from hard wheat is stronger,
will yield far greater quantity of bread