188 ESSAYS ON WHEAT 



Farm, and made selections for earliness. He thus origin- 

 ated a strain which became known as Minnesota No. 13 

 and which, instead of taking 120 to 125 days to ripen like 

 the Yellow Dent variety then most grown, matured in 

 from 100 to 110 days. The development of Minnesota 

 1^0. 13 made it possible to grow corn much farther north- 

 ward from the southern boundary of Minnesota than had 

 previously been the case. But another great step in the 

 pushing northward of the corn-belt was soon to follow 

 through the introduction of Minnesota No. 23, which was 

 even more remarkable than Minnesota ITo. 13 in its early- 

 maturing properties. Minnesota ISTo. 23 was discovered 

 by Professor Boss on a farm at Mentor, near Hendrum, 

 in jSTorman County, Minnesota, only 120 miles south of 

 the International Boundary-line. It was being grown by 

 a farmer named Jacob Berg, but how it came into his 

 possession is not known. Professor Boss noticed its un- 

 usual earliness, obtained a sample of it in 1893, and 

 propagated it at the Minnesota Experimental Station. A 

 selection of it, made by Professor C. P. Bull in 1905, was 

 increased in quantity and finally distributed as seed. The 

 new Minnesota l^o. 23 was found to ripen in the very brief 

 period of about 90 days, and this led to its being grown 

 as far north as the upper boundary of Minnesota and 

 in l^orth Dakota.^* Just as the profitable corn-belt in 

 ISTorth America was thus pushed northwards in two steps 

 by the successive introduction of Yellow Dent Minnesota 

 No. 13 and Yellow Dent Minnesota JTo. 23, so, too, in more 

 recent years, has the profitable wheat-belt been pushed 

 northwards by the successive introduction of Marquis and 

 Prelude. 



The northward advance of the corn-belt has made a 



54 The facts in this paragraph concerning corn were kindly sup- 

 plied by Professor Boss. 



