164 ESSAYS ON WHEAT 



States. ^^ A single black dot, in any localitv, indicates 

 a crop from 5,000 acres. A glance at the map shows that 

 the dots are most densely ag2;re2:ated in Xorth Dakota, 

 South Dakota, and Minnesota ; and thus, by a pictorial set- 

 ting forth of statistical data, one at once becomes con- 

 vinced that these three States are the chief of those that 

 grow spring wheat. A further study of the map reveals 

 the fact that spring wheat is also largely grown in Mon- 

 tana as well as in a belt of States surrounding those al- 

 ready named, and in scattered districts elsewhere. I^Tow 

 Marquis is a spring wheat, and on this account its dis- 

 tribution is of necessity confined to the spring-wheat States 

 where of course it has to compete with other spring wheats 

 of which the chief are Velvet Chaff (Preston), Fife (also 

 called Red Fife, Scotch Fife, etc.), and Bluestem. The 

 first four States in order of importance, so far as Marquis 

 is concerned, are: Xorth Dakota, Minnesota, South Da- 

 kota, and Montana ; but IMarquls is also grown, although 

 in much smaller quantities : to the south, in western Ne- 

 braska; to the west, at certain altitudes in Colorado, in 

 Wyoming, at altitudes between 800 and 4,500 feet in 

 Idaho, and in the State of Washington; and to the east, 

 in Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and New 

 York.^^ In the spring of this year, 1918, in order to in- 

 crease the supply of bread for the Allies in the Great War, 

 the farmers of the six last-mentioned easterly States con- 

 siderably extended their spring-wheat area, so that it be- 

 came much greater than it had been in 1917. To provide 

 seed for the additional land. Marquis was made available 



23 Finch and Baker, Geography of the World's Agriculture, U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture, Government Printing Office, Washing- 

 ton, 1917. 



24 For this geographical information I am indebted to Mr. C. R. 

 Ball of Washington, Dr. E. K. Stakman of St. Paul, and to Dr. 

 Charles E. Saunders. 



