The advocate., 1897-10-20
For the Farmer.
ABOUT HARD WHEAT.

almost exclusively Northwestern prod
uct, being nearly all grown upon the
prairies of Minnesota, North and South
Dakota, and Manitoba Efforts to ex-
tend the area of the hard wheat belt
have not been very successful AS set
tlement advanced westward with the
building Of the transcontinental railway,
hard wheat was sown in the irrigated
valleys Of Montana; but the berry de-
Perforated year by year, until 1t finally
lost all it's peculiar qualities. Expert
ments were also tried on the plains OF
eastern Washington and Oregon, where
the soil is a deComposed basalt, very
favorable to the production Of the small
grains, but there the deterioration to
soft wheat was very rapid.
Practically, the hard wheat belt Of
this continent is limited on the north
by the southern line Of August frosts,
and on the south by the southern boun'
daries of Minnesota and South Dakota.
It extends from Wisconsin on the east
out into the sub-arid district Of the
DakOtas.
In western Kansas, however, there is
a considerable extent Of the country
where hard winter wheat is successfully
grown. When farmers began to settle
on the Northwestern prairies, they soon
found they could not SOW their wheat
in the fall and depend upon regular good
crops, for the reason that the extreme
cold OF the winters killed the roots OF
the grain. They then resorted to spring
sowing, and began to look around for
varieties Of wheat best adapted to this
method of cultivation. Experiments in
Minnesota proved that the best seed was
OF the Scotch Fife variety, originally
brought from Scotland and sOwn near
the Hudson Bay Company posts in Man
itoba. This Scotch Fife seed became the
progenitor of all the vast hard wheat
crop of the Northwest, which now
amounts to about 100000 900 bushels in
an ordinary year, and in the year 1896,
reached 225000,000 bushels. The total
wheat crop of the United States this year
is estimated at 100000 bushels.
The berry of hard wheat is small, of
q reddish-brOwn color, and is very dry
and hard. Almost contemporary with
the great increase In the product Of this
kind OF grain, which followed the rapid
settlement Of Minnesota and the Da
kotas, came the invention Of what is
known as the gradual reduction process
of milling. This process was invented
in Budapest, Hungary, but has been con-
siderably improved by the practical
millers in Minneapolis. The old process
of grinding wheat with millstones con-
sisted in crushing the grain and sitting
out the bran. In the new process the
grain Is crushed many times between a
series Of steel rollers, and after each
crushing the flour is sifted out, so that
the -four is taken away from the bran
little by little, instead Of the bran being
taken at once from the flour. The chief
gain is in obtaining much larger per-
Centage of -four than was possible in the
old process, and in saving the gluten,
which lies nearest to the husks The
gluten is the most nutritious part OF
the flour, and hard wheat contains
much larger percentage Of 1t than Is con-
tanned by any soft variety, 1t is this
fact which gives the hard wheat its high
value. In milling, it is extensively used
for mixing with inferior varieties Of
wheat TO strengthen" the -four.
So well defined are the limits of the
hard wheat belt on the American con-
tinent that our Northwestern farmers
might lcok forward with confidence to
controlling in the future the markets
of the world for their staple, were it
not for the opening OF the plains OF
Siberia to settlement by the action Of
the Russian government in building a
railroad through that region, The soil
and climate of that vast country are
almost identical with the soil and cli-
mate of the prairies of North Dakota,
30 that 1t is probable that new and