But, again, in ripening of wheat there would appear to be a point in its progress short of “dead ripe,” in which every quality is fully stored in the seed; and, after this period, the seed-covering becomes thicker, and makes more bran in proportion to flour: facts made out from the following results of experiments of samples in three different states:— TABLE OF THE RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS WITH WHEAT. _Sample 1._—Wheat gathered when the grain was sweet, and almost milky. The stalks green. Date, July 25th, 1856. _Sample 2._—Wheat from the same field, gathered when in the state of hardening grain. The stalk just yellowed all the way down. August 2nd. _Sample 3._—Wheat from the same field, gathered when what is termed “dead ripe,” having been, in fact, left longer than it otherwise would, for want of hands. August 18th. 4. TABLE OF RESULTS FOR TWELVE EARS OF WHEAT DRIED. “MORTON’S RED STRAW WHITE.” +-------+---------+-------------+---------+-----------------+ |Sample.| Weight |No. of grains|Weight of| | | | of | of |grains of| | | |the ears.| corn. | corn. | | +-------+---------+-------------+---------+-----------------+ | | Grains. | | Grains. | | | 1 | 400 | 569 | 284 |Grain shrivelled.| | 2 | 379 | 431 | 294 |Grain plump. | | 3 | 468 | 453 | 377 |Grain coarser. | +-------+---------+-------------+---------+-----------------+ 5. TABLE OF ANALYSIS OF THE CORN FOR THE TWELVE EARS. +-------+--------+-----------+-----------+------------------+ | | |Per-centage|Per-centage| | |Sample.|Measure.| of | of | | | | | flour. | bran. | | +-------+--------+-----------+-----------+------------------+ | 1 | 7·5 | 70·4 | 29·6 |} Flour of a fine | | 2 | 6·8 | 71·4 | 28·6 |} white quality in| | 3 | 8·8 | 63·7 | 36·3 |} all the samples.| +-------+--------+-----------+-----------+------------------+ Now, this shows that although the medium ripe ears in sample 2 had a less number of grains, yet their per-centage of flour, as compared with bran, was greatly on the increase. Still, it will be seen that sample 3 has the advantage in measure: hence, then, unless the miller will agree to give a better price for a “gay”[22] sample, it will be to the farmer’s advantage to leave it to fully ripen, if he can make sure that it can be kept from shedding in harvesting, and the attacks of birds. [22] The farmer’s term for early-cut corn, in both the middle and West of England.