240 MISCELLANEOUS FARM SUBJECTS 



provement in earliness is necessary in adapting the crop to regions 

 having a short growing season. 



It is in the western region previously described that the grain 

 sorghums prove themselves most completely at home. They are 

 here not omy staple crops, but they are often the chief dependence 

 of the new settler, because they may be grown as sod crops. By 

 homesteaders with small means and limited equipment, they can 

 be cheaply planted on breaking. They are often planted, cultivated, 

 harvested, and even thrashed by hand under such circumstances. 



When these crops were first introduced they were tried in vari- 

 ous parts of the United States. One after another they were found 

 unsuited to the conditions in most of the country and were dis- 

 carded. But out on the Great Plains they grew in favor with the 

 farmer because they were able to stand the prevailing conditions. 

 They are able to grow and make profitable yields in hotter, drier 

 climates than most crops. Some of them are early enough for use 

 at comparatively high elevations. They are all cultivated crops, 

 entering readily into the rotation with small grains. They furnish 

 the feeding grain required on the farm, also some roughness, and 

 occasionally both fuel and food in addition. The surplus can always 

 be sold at fair to good prices. When grown on a large scale they 

 are handled rapidly and profitably by machinery in every necessary 

 operation from seeding to milling. They are undoubtedly suited 

 to become the basis of a cattle-feeding industry that will make the 

 Great Plains farmer prosperous. 



Primarily these grains are and ought to be useful in feeding 

 stock on the farms where they are grown. This fact accords with 

 the history of these crops and is due to their adaptations for such 

 use. They were the principal crops of the early settler in the dry- 

 land areas of the southern Great Plains region. He not only needed 

 a feeding grain but was often too far from market to sell it profitably 

 if he had wished. The value of the grain for keeping work stock, 

 growing animals, and dairy cows in excellent condition has long 

 been recognized among the growers. 



Durum or Macaroni Wheat. This cereal is rapidly becoming 

 one of the most important grain crops in the dry farming regions. 

 It grows best in North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Okla- 

 homa and Texas. It can be cultivated in all the other parts of the 

 West, but the quality of the grain is not so good. They must be 

 grown in dry districts in order to produce the best quality of grain. 



Macaroni wheats differ radically from the ordinary bread 

 wheats, and in the field look more like barley than wheat. The 

 heads are flat, compressed, and bearded, the beard often being black ; 

 the chaff is usually golden yellow, but sometimes black; and the 

 grains are large, hard, yellowish white, and clear, or, in wheats of 

 the best quality, sometimes translucent. There are also occasionally 

 velvet chaff varieties. In Europe they are known simply as hard 

 wheats, or durum wheats. The grain is much harder than that of 

 the hardest bread wheats, and in the best varieties contains an un- 

 usual amount of nitrogen and a correspondingly small amount of 



