524 



Medicago rutnernca is not much of a success at Krassny 

 Root. It remains too low and is of semi-prostrate habits. 



Medicago cancellata had been received this spring from 

 Mr. von Arapow, but only one plant had come up and that fellow 

 looked suspiciously like Cytisus biflorus, which is very 

 common throughout the south Volga regions. 



Mr. Bogdan had recently gotten a wheat specialist as as- 

 sistant and from the last I heard, the climate around Krassny 

 Koot is suited to a small number of wheats only. The short 

 durum grained wheats, with the bracts close together, thrive 

 best of all. The famous select Svalof wheats were hopeless 

 failures, but some varieties from hot and dry Turkestan did 

 well, like for instance a biscuit wheat from Khiva, Triticum 

 aestivum graecum, "Khivinka" , of which I obtained a small 

 sample. Bjela Turka wheat, one of the standard durum wheats 

 of south Russia, is not altogether fixed; it breaks up in 7 

 or 8 different strains there in Krassny Koot. This assistant 

 said that for localities like Krassny Koot people had to breed 

 their own races of wheat and to be very careful in importing 

 seed from other localities, as the imported wheats nearly 

 always degenerated the first year and that now especially the 

 whole of southeastern Russia was in a sorry plight, because 

 the crops had been hopeless failures this year and on many 

 places there was not even grain enough left, so the farmers 

 were already importing wheats that are not suited to local 

 conditions. What they are trying to obtain especially in 

 southeastern Russia are races of perfectly hardy winter wheats 

 and next to that, varieties that need less moisture or less 

 time to ripen. The selection work was too recently started to 

 show any results but the first indications are very promising; 

 one wheat of which the type produced 13 poods to the 

 desiatine, gave 41 poods this summer." 



