In wheat. High nitrogen and low moisture content in

a soil tends to produce wheat that is rich in nitrogen.

Millers and bakers know that some varieties of wheat

Wheat 183

are much more valuable than others for flour-making.

Hard varieties often bring increased prices on the market.

The most important factor in determining quahty in

wheat is climate. Regions having cold winters followed

by hot, dry summers which cause wheat to ripen rapidly

grow hard grain. Excessive rainfall as well as mildness

causes wheat to soften, thereby lowering its gluten con-

tent. Starchy grain taken to a hard-wheat district

hardens in a few years, just as hard ones moved to soft

districts gradually lose their horny texture. Accom-

panying changes in chemical composition likewise result.

193. Uses and value. — The principal use of wheat is

for hmnan consumption in the form of bread. Flour,

carefully graded in the large mills, is handled by whole-

sale dealers who distribute it to homes or bakeries. Bread

is the chief diet of all highly civilized nations.

Besides being used for bread-making, flour is made

into pies, cakes, crackers, doughnuts, pancakes, and a

number of other conunon foods. In addition, many cereal

breakfast foods are made from wheat. Formerly, only

flour was saved at the mill. A waste-spout carried the

bran, shorts, and other by-products into the stream that

turned the water-wheel. Now these comprise a valuable

part of the output. Bran and shorts are among the most

valuable of stock-feeds. Even the dust brushed from the

wheat kernels before grinding is collected and mixed with

the bran.

Cracked, or broken wheat is better, especially for

swine, than whole wheat, which in some cases escapes

mastication and does not digest. The price of wheat,

however, generally compels the use of cheaper grains,

such as corn and barley. The dependence on wheat

for such a variety of food products gives it a value

higher than dollars and cents. Nearly twice as much

184 The Principles of Agronomy

wheat is ground for dietetic purposes, as of all other

grains combined.

In cash value as well as in total yield, it is second to

rice which alone feeds over half of the inhabitants of the

earth. In the United States corn is the largest crop, with

wheat second. For the world, however, corn, oats, and

wheat each produce about four billion bushels, while

rice totals five billion.

Potatoes, other root crops, and fruits all feed a greater

number of persons for a given area than wheat, but main-

tain them at a lower standard of living. Wherever the

standard of living is increasing, as it is in Germany,

Russia, and parts of India, the use of wheat is spreading.

Dondlinger ^ says : " The great intrinsic food value of

wheat; its ease of cultivation and preparation for use;

its wide adaptation to different climates and soils; its

quick and bountiful return; and the fact of its being

paniferous and yielding such a vast number and variety

of products are all factors that enhance the value of the

wheat grain. Its combined qualitative and quantitative

importance gives to wheat a great superiority over any

other cereal, and causes it to be dealt in more extensively

upon the speculative markets than any other agricultural

product. As an essential part of the food of civilized

man it assumes an importance so vital as to be domi-

nating."

194. Storage. — The easiest way to store wheat, or

any other grain for that matter, is to put it in sacks as

it comes from the thresher, and to pile them on the ,

ground. The owner uses this method as a makeshift

until he can do something else with the grain : either sell

it or store it permanently in a place where it will be pro-

tected from the weather. Sometimes the sacks are left

* Book of Wheat, p. 8.

Wheat

185

exposed; sometimes they are covered with pieces of

canvas having weights tied to the corners to hold them

down.

As such storage permits considerable damage in wet

storms, the farmer generally uses it only for that part of

the crop that he intends to sell. Whatever he keeps over

winter, he puts in bins in granaries. Since frost does not

injure wheat, the granaries are exposed as much as pos-

sible to cold, thereby reducing to a minimum damage

from mice and vermin, which cannot stand extreme cold.

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Fig. 64. — Gain in weight of wheat after harvest in arid regions, Utah.

To further ward off attacks of these destructive pests,

some farmers set their granaries on posts three or four

feet above ground. On top of the posts, before the joists

are laid, they place inverted tin pans, which prevent mice,

rats, and squirrels from climbing up the posts. Tight

doors also deny them admittance.

The grain that is sold has very different treatment.

The part that goes to the Pacific Coast is left in sacks,

either being piled up on the wharves in heaps several

186 The Principles of Agronomy

blocks long by a hundred feet high, where it waits ship-

ment, or else being stored in warehouses, some of which

cover several acres. Still another part of our local export

stops in the neighboring towns to be ground into flour.

These mills have large bins holding from one thousand

to fifty thousand bushels, storehouses which are really

miniature elevators.

196. Elevators. — Particularly in the region of the

Great Lakes, elevators are becoming more common.

Here sacks are not used, and men handle the loose grain

almost entirely by machinery. It pours directly from

the thresher into dump wagons. The loose grain

finds its way into cars which carry it to the elevator

platforms. Trap-doors open chutes, down which it pours

into vast cellars. Endless carriers elevate the grain and

distribute it to bins from which it runs like water down

chutes into cars, boats, or mills. Not once is it moved

by hand. Terminal elevators are inunense affairs, occa-

sionally holding three million bushels of grain. Scattered

far and wide over the country are smaller structures

sometimes tributary to the large concerns and some-

times independent. One of the great elevators used in

the handling of the grain crop is shown in Fig. 55.

Any grain containing excessive moisture molds and

ferments in storage thus losing much of its value. For-

merly, a considerable amount of grain was lost in this way

in the close holds of ships that carried it from the United

States to Europe. Grain must be well-dried before being

stored anywhere. In arid regions, it is so dry at harvest

time that it can be stored at once without danger. Indeed,

it gains in weight by the absorption of moisture, elimi-

nating shrinkage. Wheat shipped from California gains

enough in weight before it reaches London to pay the

cost of hauling.

Wheat is often bought and stored to await a rise m

price. Small storage charges are made for rented space

in elevators, about two cents a bushel for the first thirty

days and a half cent for each additional thirty days.

Sometimes farmers store grain independently; occasion-

ally a number cooperate and run an elevator. By far

the greatest number sell at threshing time. Much

Fig. 55. — Large terminal elevators help to handle the world's grain crop.

grain, however, is contracted in the spring before it is even

planted.

196. Marketing. — It is difficult for the ordinary

farmer to know whether to sell at harvest or during the

following winter. Often he needs the money and must

dispose of part or all of the grain at once. To sell the

entire crop at the same time saves him labor and storage

expenses, but he loses any advantage from subsequent rise

188 The Principles of Agronomy

in price. This rise sometimes does not pay the expense ;

indeed, there may be a drop instead of a rise. The intel-

ligent farmer studies the markets. " Will it pay to

store ? " is the question he must answer in consideration

of the time to sell.

Local merchants and mills buy from growers and sell

to shippers. Large companies also keep agents in the

field who contract for grain with the individual farmers.

In well-developed districts most of the grain is handled

in this way. A few cooperative farmers' companies ship

their own products. When successful, these net large

returns, but the undertaking is attended with much risk

as a business venture.

A great avenue for advance in marketing is a more

systematic grading. In the grain trade of Chicago wheat

is graded as follows :

White Winter Wheat, Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4.

Long Red Winter Wheat, Nos. 1 and 2.

Red Winter Wheat, Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4.

Hard Winter Wheat, Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4.

Colorado Wheat, Nos. 1, 2, and 3.

Northern Spring Wheat, Nos. 1 and 2.

Spring Wheat, Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4.

White Spring Wheat, Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4.

The grades are based on soundness, cleanliness, weight,

color, and uniformity, No. 1 being best. Poor wheat is

called " no grade." These grades have become so neariy

standard that a buyer accepts a certificate from the in-

spector without looking at the grain or seeing a sample

of it.