76 AGRICULTURE 



1. Soft spring wheat. 



2. Hard spring wheat. 



3. Macaroni wheat. 



These types furnish a great many different varieties, so 

 many that it would be a hopeless task to try to learn them 

 all. The United States Department of Agriculture and the 

 state experiment stations have tested as many as one thou- 

 sand different varieties since 1895. 



Climate and type. In general, the more humid 

 climates produce the soft wheats and drier climates the hard 

 wheats. The introduction of hard wheats has opened up 

 vast western regions to wheat raising which were too dry 

 for the soft varieties. 



Better flour is made from hard than from soft wheat, 

 though a very excellent grade is made by mixing the two. 

 Macaroni wheat is the hardest type, and is chiefly used in 

 the manufacture of macaroni, though some of this type is 

 now being used for flour. Macaroni can not be successfully 

 made from the soft wheats. 



Winter wheat. Winter wheat is planted in the fall, 

 lives through the winter, and ripens the following summer. 

 It requires about one hundred days to mature after growing 

 weather has come in the spring. 



About two-thirds of all the wheat grown in the United 

 States is of winter varieties. In regions where winter 

 wheat will withstand the extremes of temperature it is pre- 

 ferred to spring varieties, since it (1) yields more, and 

 (2) is more free from disease and from injury by the vari- 

 ous insect pests. 



Kansas and Nebraska are the great centers for the 

 hard winter varieties, while east of the Mississippi River the 

 softer winter varieties are chiefly grown. More than sixty 

 per cent, of all the winter wheat grown in the United 



