CEREAL IMPROVEMENT INTRODUCTIONS 165 



wheat, and the summers too dry for Fife spring wheat. 

 Such a wheat, Kubanka, was found by the author for the 

 United States Department of Agriculture, in the Kirghiz 

 Steppe of western Siberia, at two places, near Uralsk and 

 Orenburg, in 1899 (Fig. 57). From the 800 bushels of 

 seed, obtained that year and the next, there is now pro- 

 duced each year in this country an average of about 



FIG. 57. Hauling Kubanka wheat to market in the Kirghiz Steppe. 



40 million bushels. Kubanka is a durum wheat with 

 golden yellow chaff, and large, light amber colored kernels 

 that are vitreous in fracture (see Fig. 16). Other durum 

 varieties, such as Arnautka and Nicaragua, had been 

 grown for years in the United States and Canada in a 

 small way, but had not been utilized, commercially, and 

 therefore had no market. The introduction of Kubanka 

 was followed with trials of it for both macaroni and 

 bread. Favorable results of these trials, together with 

 a foreign demand, created a market. For some time 



