602 Thirty-second Annual Report 



twelve short and long staple upland varieties have been im- 

 ported and planted in the vicinity of Tucson outside the quaran- 

 tine area. 



Selection work is also being carried on with three strains 

 of Pima cotton for the purpose of reducing the amount of fuzz 

 on the seed. These three strains were obtained from the United 

 States Department of Agriculture through the courtesy of Dr. 

 T. H. Kearney. 



WHEAT 



As stated in previous annual reports of this department, 

 the object of the wheat project is to produce an early bread 

 wheat suitable for growth in the irrigated valleys of southern 

 Arizona. Early Baart is still our best bread wheat, although 

 the local millers speak of it as a soft wheat and claim that its 

 flour lacks the baking strength of the hard wheat flour of the 

 Middle West. Millers are, therefore, blending the hard wheats 

 of the Middle West with the locally grown Early Baart in the 

 milling of our best flours. The number of irrigations prob- 

 ably affects the quality of the flour produced to a greater ex- 

 tent than is generally recognized. Some varieties can stand 

 more irrigation than others and still produce grain of fair qual- 

 ity, and the Early Baart is probably the most tolerant to irriga- 

 tion of any bread wheat grown in the State. This is partly due 

 to hereditary qualities of the grain and partly due to 

 its early maturity. It matures about thirty days earlier than 

 the Red Turkey, thus saving one or two irrigations each season. 

 However, even the natural grain quality of the Early Baart has 

 been changed to such an extent by heavy, late irrigations that 

 its loaf volume as bread was smaller than that of the softest 

 wheat that had been irrigated more lightly. Thus at the Yuma 

 Horticultural Station in the spring of 1914 the grain of the 

 heavily irrigated Early Baart produced flour whose loaf vol- 

 ume was 1780 cubic centimeters, while the loaf volume of the 

 lightly irrigated Sonora was 1900 cubic centimeters, the same 

 quantity of flour being used in each case. It is apparent that 

 of the varieties of wheat which have a tendency to produce 

 hard grains, those maturing early, and therefore requiring less 

 irrigation, will have the best opportunity for developing the 

 hardest grains. In addition to requiring one or two fewer irri- 

 gations than late wheats, the early varieties are more likely to 

 escape insect and disease injury and also to give more time for 



