160 THE ESSENTIALS OF AGRICULTURE 



approximately dividing the two districts would pass through 

 Forsythe (Montana), northeastern Wyoming, northern Nebraska, 

 Sioux City (Iowa), and La Crosse (Wisconsin). 



The principal hard-winter-wheat-producing states of this 

 area are Kansas, Nebraska, Montana, and portions of Okla- 

 homa, Colorado, and Iowa. The varieties grown are Kharkof 

 and Turkey, or improved strains of these varieties. They com- 

 prise the hardiest varieties of winter wheat known, and are 

 therefore grown the farthest north. 



194. Soft- and semihard- winter-wheat district. The area 

 producing semihard and soft winter wheat lies south and east 

 of that producing hard winter wheat and comprises the states 

 of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Tennessee, 

 Missouri, and the eastern parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, and 

 Nebraska. The annual rainfall varies from 35 to 45 inches. 

 The hard-wheat-producing area of Kansas and Nebraska has a 

 rainfall varying from 1 7 inches on the western border to a little 

 over 30 inches at the eastern border. Features of this area are 

 the scarcity of rainfall during the summer months and the 

 relatively high temperatures which prevail. This hastens the 

 maturity of the grain, producing a kernel very hard and high 

 in protein. The opposite conditions which prevail in the soft- 

 wheat area produces a soft grain, high in starch and lower in 

 protein. 



195. Pacific coast district. The wheat of the Pacific coast 

 region is very plump, starchy, and soft. The annual production 

 is small and appears to be decreasing. The main producing 

 area is in California. 



The rainfall of this area occurs entirely in the winter season. 

 The rainless summers permit the wheat, after it is ripe, to stand 

 in the field with little danger of loss. It is this fact which allows 

 the use of a machine that harvests and threshes the crop at one 

 operation, leaving the sacked grain in windrows in much the 

 same manner as the ordinary binder leaves the bundles. This 

 method of harvesting and threshing makes it necessary to grow 

 varieties which do not lodge or shatter. Both these qualities are 



