THE DEVELOPMENT OF WHEAT CULTURE IN NORTH AMERICA. 2389 
home of macaroni wheat on the plains of the Volga.! The author to 
whom reference is here made also characterises the soils of the Plains 
as a counterpart of the ‘ black earth ’ of Russia. The first introduction 
of Russian durum was made in the United States in 1864, and experi- 
mental proof of its value has become conclusive and final. The area 
suited to its growth extends in a wide north and south belt through 
the Dakotas, Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Texas. In 1906 the 
production of durum wheat in the United States had risen to 
50,000,000 bushels, with a growing export demand in Southern Europe, 
as its qualities are known, and a larger domestic use accompanying 
development in milling methods and the enlarging of the macaroni 
industry. 
Both yield and areal expansion have been assiduously promoted in 
North America by skilful selection and cross-breeding. Professor W. M. 
Hayes estimates that farmers have increased the yield of maize 20 per 
cent. by selecting the best ears, and they have also pushed the corn belt 
northward.” According to the same writer, the past century saw the 
sugar content of the sugar beet doubled through selection by European 
seed-growers. Other important results from plant-breeding and selection 
are familiar, and it has been shown by ample experience that no vegetable 
product is more plastic than wheat. Different conditions in the United 
States have modified wheats in colour, hardness, moisture, gluten, and 
albumenoids, and have changed winter to spring and spring to winter 
wheats. According to Hayes, a single variety known as Minnesota 
No. 169, -bred at the experiment stations, has raised the yield in that 
State no less than 5-10 per cent. 
Among the most persistent and successful efforts in breeding new 
varieties are those carried out under the direction of Dr. William 
Saunders at the Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa, and at the other 
experiment stations of the Dominion. This work has peculiar interest, 
because one of its chief aims is to breed wheat suited to northern condi- 
tions. Where vast areas are suited to wheat in surface, soil, and 
potential transportation, it is of the utmost importance to secure early 
ripening and conformity to the shortness of the summer season. At the 
same time high quality must be preserved, since the chief present value 
of the crop is for the purposes of export. 
The most important of these new varieties are the Preston, Stanley, 
Huron, and Percy.* Preston is named by Dr. Saunders as the best- 
known of the early wheats, and the four named were all originated at 
Ottawa in 1888 by crossing Red or White Fife with Ladoga. As com- 
pared with the old and standard Red Fife, these varieties all ripen four 
to twelve days earlier. Their yield, colour of flour, baking strength, 
and market value are all high, and the early ripening therefore extends 
the wheat belt northward to a significant degree. The parent Fife holds 
its place where early frosts are not feared; but the new breeds are 
invaluable in latitudes where a single early frost puts in jeopardy the 
labours of an entire year. We need not suppose that the process of 
adjustment to northern conditions has yet reached its limit. 
* Macaroni Wheats, M. A. Carleton, Bull. No. 3, Burean of Plant Industry, 
U.8. Department of Agriculture. 
* Year Book, U.S. of Agriculture, 1901, p. 218. 
* Preston and other Harly-ripening Wheats, C. E. Saunders, Cerealist. Bull. 
of Central Experimental Farm, March, 1908. 
