21 



extremely starehy, and lack greatly in gluten content. The straw is 

 so white and clean and glistening- that it is dazzling to the eyes in the 

 hot sunshine. Rust on wheat is seldom injurious, and in some locali- 

 ties is entirely unknown. Smut, howeyer, is often present to a con- 

 siderable extent. The stiffness of the straw and the absence of rain 

 preyent the grain from eyer lodging, so that haryesting may be 

 delayed for weeks with little or no injury to the grain. 



Manifestly the greatest need of this district is an increase in the 

 gluten content of the grain. While the introduction of hard-grained 

 nitrot'-enous sorts from other sections is at first an improyement, the 

 gluten content can not thus be materially and permanently increased. 

 No wheat yariety, whatever its nature, can abstract from the soil ele- 

 ments that are not present there. Wheats l)rought f rom the black 

 prairie soils of other sections to this district show the most striking 

 illustration of the radical changes that may be caused in a yariety by a 

 simple transference to a new locality, and, eyen when grown under the 

 best of care, quite etfectually disprove a notion prevalent eyen among 

 scientists that yarieties will not deteriorate. The hardest red Fifes 

 from North Dakota, Turkey wheat from Kansas, or Diamond Grit from 

 New York become rapidly more starchy and of a lighter color on being 

 grown in Utah or New Mexico. The first requisite, therefore, for 

 wheat improvement in irrigated sections is the complete amelioration 

 of the soil by (1) dispersing the excessive accunuilations of alkali and 

 (2) increasing the humus content through the application of nitrogenous 

 fertilizers and the growth of leguminous crops in alternation with wdieat. 

 At the same time it will aid greatly to gradually introduce the harder 

 red-p-rained wheats. 



In many portions of this district, at high elevations in the moun- 

 tains, wheat is often seriously damaged by early autunm frosts. It is 

 therefore important to obtain for these localities the earliest maturing 

 varieties possible, or varieties that may perhaps resist the action of 

 the frost. For example, in the San Luis Valley of Colorado wheat is 

 trrown at an elevation of over 7,500 feet, where frost is likely to occur 

 in any month of the year, but is especially liable to injure the crop in 

 August. 



SUMMARY OF CONDITIONS AND NEEDS OF THE DISTRICT. 



( 1 ) Chief varieties now grown : 



Sonora, Little Club, 



Taos, Defiance, 



Felspar, Amethyst. 



(2) Averajje yield per acre, about 21 bushels. 



(3) Needs of the grower: 



(a) Increase of the gluten content, 

 (i) Pearly maturity. 



