Wheat

Wheat is the leading dry-farm crop.  Every prospect indicates that it will retain its preëminence.  Not only is it the most generally used cereal, but the world is rapidly learning to depend more and more upon the dry-farming areas of the world for wheat production.  In the arid and semiarid regions it is now a commonly accepted doctrine that upon the expensive irrigated lands should be grown fruits, vegetables, sugar beets, and other intensive crops, while wheat, corn, and other grains and even much of the forage should be grown as extensive crops upon the non-irrigated or dry-farm lands.  It is to be hoped that the time is near at hand when it will be a rarity to see grain grown upon irrigated soil, providing the climatic conditions permit the raising of more extensive crops.

In view of the present and future greatness of the wheat crop on semiarid lands, it is very important to secure the varieties that will best meet the varying dry-farm conditions.  Much has been done to this end, but more needs to be done.  Our knowledge of the best wheats is still fragmentary.  This is even more true of other dry-farm crops.  According to Jardine, the dry-farm wheats grown at present in the United States may be classificd as follows:—­

I. Hard spring wheats:  (a) Common (b) Durum

II.  Winter wheats:  (a) Hard wheats (Crimean) (b) Semihard wheats (Intermountain) (c) Soft wheats (Pactfic)

The common varieties of hard spring wheats are grown principally in districts where winter wheats have not as yet been successful; that is, in the Dakotas, northwestern Nebraska, and other localities with long winters and periods of alternate thawing and severe freezing.  The superior value of winter wheat has been so clearly demonstrated that attempts are being made to develop in every locality winter wheats that can endure the prevailing climatic conditions.  Spring wheats are also grown in a scattering way and in small quantities over the whole dry-farm territory.  The two most valuable varieties of the common hard spring wheat are Blue Stem and Red Fife, both well-established varieties of excellent milling qualities, grown in immense quantities in the Northeastern corner of the dry-farm territory of the United States and commanding the best prices on the markets of the world.  It is notable that Red Fife originated in Russia, the country which has given us so many good dry-farm crops.

The durum wheats or macaroni wheats, as they are often called, are also spring wheats which promise to displace all other spring varieties because of their excellent yields under extreme dry-farm conditions.  These wheats, though known for more than a generation through occasional shipments from Russia, Algeria, and Chile, were introduced to the farmers of the United States only in 1900, through the explorations and enthusiastic advocacy of Carleton of the United States Department of Agriculture.  Since that time they have been