The Bulletin. 



9 



The wheat industry is gradually spreading northward in this coun- 

 try, first as a spring, then as a fall-sown crop. Spring wheat once 

 grew over Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa, where winter wheat is now 

 grown almost altogether. In the Dakotas and Minnesota spring wheat 

 was grown exclusively till a short while ago, when here and there 

 fall-sown wheat began to appear. Wheat soon adapts itself to un- 

 toward climatic conditions. By careful manipulation spring wheat 

 may be changed to winter wheat in a short time. In one instance 

 only three years Avere required to change the one to the other. 



In its adaptation to dilFerent soils the process seems to be somewhat 

 slower. Wheat, being one of the grasses, requires a rather close, heavy 

 soil for the best development of its fibrous root system, and this con- 

 dition is met Avith only in a loam, silt loam, clay loam or a clay soil. 

 There is no variety of wheat that does Avell in a light sandy soil in 

 the Eastern part of the United States and in the West, while the durum 

 wheats do better on the light soils than the other varieties, they make 

 their best yields on the heavier silty loams. 



The soils in North Carolina that produce our best wheat are found 

 in the Piedmont and mountainous sections of the State. These soils 

 are knoAvn as the Cecil or red clay, the Cecil loam and the Porters 

 loam, the last-named soil being confined to the mountains. All of 

 them are characterized by a red to reddish brown soil containing vary- 

 ing amounts of sharp sand, silt and clay, impregnated with iron oxide. 

 These are all residual soils, derived from the breaking down of the 

 granites, crystalline schists, mica shists, and the more basic rocks 

 found in the Avestern part of the State. The soils thus derived con- 

 tain, as a rule, an abundance of mineral plant food, but in a form 

 in Avhich the plants can not use it, and must be rendered available by 

 cultivation, manuring and proper fertilization. A stiff red-clay loam 

 underlies all of these soils. 



COMPOSITION 



The folloAving tables shoAv the composition of the wheat grain, by- 

 products and the feeding value of wheat straw: 



TABLE I.— SHOWING COMPOSITION OF WHEAT GRAIN AND PATENT, BAKERS' AND 



LOW-GRADE FLOURS. 



