116 ORIGIN AND DESCRIPTION OF WHEAT TYPES 



years. They have found a place in the Great Plains region from 

 the Dakotas to Texas. 



Durum Wheat Types. The Poulard is not a true durum as the 

 grain is sometimes semihard and is grown in mild humid climates. 

 In other respects it resembles the durums and can best be classed 

 there. The " seven-headed " or " miracle " wheat is a type of this 

 with branching head. It is grown very little. 



Durum wheat or " macaroni " is the principal type in cultivation. 



Polish wheat has a very long grain, sometimes one-half inch in 

 length. The head also appears to be large, as the outer glumes are 

 very large, the head sometimes being eight inches long and nearly 

 an inch thick. It is not grown except in a very small way. 



The Spelt Wheat Group. In this group of wheats the grains 

 are all tightly enclosed in the glumes as with oats. More or less of 

 the grains are freed from the glumes in threshing, but not as a gen- 

 eral rule. The grains are semihard, but make a rather poor flour. 

 They are sometimes used as a meal by poor people in Europe. Their 

 culture is nowhere extensive, but they are grown in a limited way 

 and mostly on poor or dry soils throughout the south half of Europe. 

 Their general introduction into the United States dates back to about 

 1900. 



Einkorn is supposed to be the most primitive type of wheat, and 

 probably one of the first in cultivation by man, not cultivated in 

 America. 



Emmer has probably the widest cultivation, and a number of 

 varieties, the best known of which are white spring emmer and 

 black winter emmer. The emmers have found a permanent place in 

 the north half of the Great Plains, as a grain crop for stock feed. 

 One variety, the black winter emmer, introduced by the U. S. De- 

 partment of Agriculture, has been found to be especially adapted to 

 the high elevated plains in Wyoming, Montana, and Colorado. The 

 white spring emmer is cultivated in a limited way in the Dakotas and 

 in Nebraska. 



Spelt is not grown in America, though the name " speltz " is very 

 commonly but wrongly applied to spring emmer. Spelt is cultivated 

 some in western Europe, but not in Russia (compare Figs. 47 

 and 48). 



