BOTANICAL RELATIONS OF WHEAT 



51 



besides giving a good yield of grain per acre. Almost all varieties are spring 

 grown. Of other countries emmer is chiefly cultivated in Russia, Germany, Spain, 

 Italy and Servia, and to some extent in France. The emmer of this country is de- 

 scended from seed originally obtained chiefly from Russia, where a considerable 

 portion of the food of the Volga region is a sort of gruel ( " kasha " ) made from 

 hulled and cracked emmer. 



" The desirable qualities furnished by this group of wheats are* 



(i) Power of holding the grain in the head. 



(2) Drought resistance. 



(3) Resistance to orange leaf rust 

 " The undesirable qualities are: 



(i) Brittleness of the head. 



(2) Adaptability only for spring sowing."! 



81. Common Wheat (Tr. sat. vidgare Hackel). — As the 

 name implies, this is the subspecies commonly grown throughout 

 the wheat growing districts of the world. Its high yielding power 

 and its excellence for breadmaking are the special qualities 

 which have made it the leading cultivated sort. 



82. Club or Square Head Wheat (TV. sat, 

 compactuvi Hackel). — This subspecies differs 

 from common wheat principally in the shortness 

 and compactness of the head and the shortness 

 (usually about two feet) and stiffness of the 

 Straw. It is less liable to shatter before or 

 during harvest and less liable to lodge than 

 common wheat, and is thus especially adapted 

 to the Pacific Coast States and those Rocky 

 Mountain States where the wheat stands on 

 the field for some time after it is ripe and is 

 cut with combined header and thresher. Aside 

 from the regions named it is cultivated chiefly 

 in Chile, Turkestan and Abyssinia. There are both spring and 

 winter varieties. The latter are adapted only to comparatively 

 mild climates. The quality of the grain does not differ materially 

 from that of the softer varieties of common wheat. 



Club wheat. 

 (One-half natural size.} 



1 The Basis for the Improvement of American Wlieats. By M. A. Carleton. 

 U. S. Dept. of Agr., Div. of Veg. Phys. and Path. Bui. 24 (1900), pp. 34-35. 



