ECONOMIC PLANTS 



185 



Kinds of Wheat. - - There are two main classes of 

 wheat based on the time of sowing, namely, winter 

 wheat and spring wheat. Two other terms are used 

 to express types of wheat, hard wheat and soft wheat, 

 both winter and spring wheat having varieties of each 

 type. Then, again, there are many varieties of each 

 class based on color, awns, chaff, and the like. It is 

 difficult to determine with accuracy the different varie- 

 ties as they are growing in the field, and it is often 

 more difficult to determine the varieties by looking at 

 a sample of the grain. 



The heads of some of the types of wheat are illus- 

 trated in Figure 92. 



FIG. 9^. Types of Wheat. 

 a, emmer; b, blue stem; c, macaroni; d, fife; c, bearded common. 



As a rule, the more humid the region, the softer the 

 wheat will be. The vast prairies and rolling country 

 of Canada and the Dakotas produce a hard spring 

 wheat that ranks with the hard winter wheat of Ne- 



