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less wheats for dry upland. The variety which the Ohio Station especially recommends for lowland is bearded, while the two highest yielding varieties upon upland soil in nine years' test are beardless. Some bearded varieties, however, have also yielded nearly as well upon upland soil. Red grains command the highest price because of their superior milling qualities.

94.

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Desirable Qualities.-The three characteristics which determine the eight groups above are external and in themselves are not essential, although they may be correlated with essential qualities. Nils-nesota No.165 140 1857 181 167 171 163 semanti son holds that the purely botanical characters have correlated with them such valuable economic ones that too much stress cannot be laid upon the value of a pure botanical variety. Some of the qualities which it is desirable to obtain in wheat are:

(1) High yield.

(2) Hardness and density of grain. (3) For some purposes and within certain limits high gluten content of superior quality.

(4) Early maturity (at least for some sections.)

(5) Resistance to drought.

(6) Resistance to rusts.

(7) Resistance to Hessian fly.

(8) Stiffness of straw.

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Some of these qualities are interdependent, as for example high yield and resistance to drought, rusts or Hessian fly, and some are probably antagonistic, as high yield and high gluten

content.

1 E. S. R. XIII (1902), p. 817.

95. Score Card.-Hays has proposed a score card for comparing the performance of spring varieties of wheat, as follows:1 Percentage score card for comparing varieties of wheat:

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A graphic presentation of this score card is proposed, as shown in paragraph 94.

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96. Market Classification. The markets of the country recognize four types of wheat, which are grown in somewhat distinct areas of the country, although no sharp line can be drawn between these localities. They are as follows:

1. Soft winter, in eastern United States; climate mild, even and moist; spike either bearded or beardless, but principally the latter; color of grain varies from white to light red; per cent of gluten medium.

2. Hard winter, south of Minnesota and the Dakotas between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains; extremes of temperature and moisture with dry, hot summers; usually bearded; grain red, with per cent of gluten high.

3. Hard spring, in Minnesota, the Dakotas and northern Wisconsin, Iowa and Nebraska;2 climate too severe for winter varieties, otherwise like hard winter district; bearded or beardless; color of grain red and usually lacking in plumpness; per cent of gluten high.

4. White, in Pacific Coast and Rocky Mountain States; long season of growth; bearded or beardless; grain white, large and plump; per cent of gluten low.

1-Minn. Bul. 62 (1899), p. 432.

• Central and western Canada also furnishes a large quantity of this type.

To what extent the varieties of these regions were made so directly by the environment under which they have been grown, and to what extent they are simply the survival of the fittest is still open to further investigation. To put it in other words, the characters may have been acquired through their present environment, or the present varieties may have been selected as the best of a large number of varieties tested in each region.

97. Soft Winter Varieties.-Seven stations, including Guelph, Canada, located east of the Mississippi River, have reported tests of varieties of wheat within the past decade. The following varieties have been reported as having given superior yields at two or more stations:

BEARDED, red or amber grain: Valley, Nigger, Mediterranean,. Rudy, Fulcaster, Kansas Mortgage Lifter.

gold com BEARDED, white grain: Early Genesee Giant. Early Tennessee BEARDLESS, red or amber grain: Mealy, Early Ripe, Poole, Currell's Prolific, New Monarch, Improved Poole, Fultz, Harvest King, Early Red Clawson.

BEARDLESS, white grain: Dawson's Golden Chaff.

Fultz is probably the most widely and universally grown variety of wheat in the United States. (103) It is what may be called a semihard, red-grained beardless variety with white smooth glumes. Red Fultz (synonyms, Poole and German. Emperor) is also largely grown, but differs from Fultz in having bronze smooth glumes.

98. Hard Winter Varieties.-The favorite variety of the hard winter wheat is the Turkey (sometimes called Crimean), a bearded, hard red wheat, coming originally from Crimea and other portions of Laurida in southern Russia.

After testing the comparative hardiness and yield of 275 varieties of wheat, covering a series of years, the Kansas Station recommends three bearded varieties, Andrews No. 4, Turkey and Valley, and three beardless varieties, Tasmanian Red,

Ramsey and Currell.1 Sibley's New Golden (bearded) gave the largest average yield during six years at the Oklahoma Station.2

99. Hard Spring Varieties.-The two types of hard spring wheat of which there are many varieties are the Fife and the Blue Stem. Both are beardless with white glumes, which in the Blue Stem are covered with fine velvety hairs but in the Fife are smooth. The Minnesota Station after years of testing 200 varieties of wheat has selected two of the Fife type (Power's Fife and Glyndon) and two of the Blue Stem type (Bolton's Blue Stem and Haynes' Blue Stem) as the best four varieties for combined yield and quality. This station has also originated an improved strain of Glyndon under the name of Minnesota No. 163. Preston, a bearded variety, originated by Dr. William Saunders, Director of the Dominion Experiment Farms, Ottawa, Canada, has given good results at several stations.

Spring varieties of durum and macaroni wheats are now being recommended in the semiarid portion of the spring wheat district. South Dakota reports that macaroni wheat will yield from twenty-five to 100 per cent more than the best Blue Stem and Fife wheats, the difference in favor of the macaroni wheats increasing as the conditions for raising bread (common) wheat become less favorable. At the North Dakota Station the average yield of a number of durum (Russian) varieties during four years (1899-1902) was 30.3, while for the Blue Stem and Fife varieties combined it was 25.9 bushels.5

The reports from the Nebraska Station® and from the Colorado Station are less favorable, while the Minnesota Station

1 Rpt. Kans. St. Bd. Agr. Quar. ending March, 1902, p. 76.

2 Okla. Bul. 47, P. 44.

8 Minn. Bul. 62 (1899), p. 354.

4 S. Dak. Bul. 77, p. 7.

5 13th Rpt. N. Dak. Sta. (1903), p. 77.

8 Neb. Bul. 78.

7 Col. Press Bul. 17.

states that their experiments have demonstrated the superiority for their conditions of the Blue Stem and Fife varieties of common wheat. As the result of five years' tests, the Montana Station recommends three Fife varieties (Red, Wellman's and McKissock's) and three durum varieties (Kubanka, Russian 2955 and Wild Goose).2

100.

White Varieties.-These varieties are to be found growing in the Pacific Coast States and are largely of the club or square head type. Carleton gives the principal varieties as follows: Australian, California Club, Sonora, Oregon Red Chaff, Foise, Palouse Blue Stem, Palouse Red Chaff, White Winter and Little Club.

III. IMPROVEMENT OF VARIETIES.

ΙΟΙ. New Varieties.-The new varieties of wheat in this country have come from three sources: (1) The introduction of foreign varieties; (2) the selection of variations in existing varieties; (3) the crossing of two or more varieties and subsequent selection.

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102. The Introduction of Foreign Varieties.-Examples of the introduction of valuable varieties from foreign countries are to be found in Mediterranean, a bearded red winter wheat introduced first in 1819 from the islands of the Mediterranean Sea; Fife, a beardless red spring variety, supposed to have been obtained by selection from a winter variety introduced from Russia; Turkey, a bearded red winter variety from southern Russia; and the club varieties of the Pacific Coast, soft bearded varieties both spring and winter, some of them at least coming from Chile.

103. Improvement by Selection.-Illustrations of improvement by selection are to be found in Fultz, a red-grained beardless variety, selected from Lancaster, a red bearded variety

1 Minn. Bul. 62 (1899), P. 393.

2 Eighth An Rpt. Mont. Sta. (1901), p. 16.

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