14 BULLETIN 39, U. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 



Power Fife— The Power Fife (Minn. No. 66, S. Dak. No. 142, 

 C. I. No. 2989) is a typical variety of the beardless-fife group. It 

 is of good milling quality, and usually produces grain which is a 

 little more plump than that of the bluestem varieties. It is diffi- 

 cult to distinguish a sample of grain of this group from bluestem 

 wheat, though the kernels average a little shorter in proportion to 

 their width, and some of them have narrow, incurving sutures. 



At Brookings this Power Fife has yielded 1.2 bushels less annu- 

 ally than the Haynes Bluestem (Minn. No. 169) in the 8-year test, 

 while at Highmore it has yielded 1 bushel less during the same 

 period (Table II). Since the distribution of this variety by the 

 Minnesota station, a selection known as Minnesota No. 163 has been 

 produced. This latter selection has not been included in the South 

 Dakota trials during the 8-year period under discussion, but it has 

 been grown at Highmore for five years and appears to be at least 

 as good as Minnesota No. 66. The average yields of the two stocks 

 for that period have been practically the same, 8.6 bushels per acre 

 for Minnesota No. 66 and 8.4 bushels for Minnesota No. 163. These 

 varieties mature a few days earlier than the varieties of the blue- 

 stem group and for that reason are not so badly affected by rust. 



THE BEARDED-FIFE GROUP. 



The varieties of the bearded-fife group of common wheat are 

 bearded and have smooth white glumes (chaff). The kernels are 

 dark red in color, with narrow incurving sutures. They are known 

 commercially in the hard spring- wheat district as " Velvet Chaff," 

 though the chaff is smooth and this name is therefore wrongly ap- 

 plied. The typical variety of the group is the Red Fife (S. Dak. No. 

 67, C. I. No. 3081). It also includes the South Dakota Climax, 

 Golden Fife, Early Java, and Preston (Minn. No. 188). A number 

 of typical heads of the Red Fife are shown in figure 3. 



Red Fife.— The Red Fife variety (S. Dak. No. 67, C. I. No. 3081) 

 requires about 95 days from seeding to maturity, as compared with 

 105 days for the bluestem wheats. Its earliness makes it less sus- 

 ceptible than the varieties of that group to damage from rust or from 

 midsummer drought. It has withstood drought at Highmore better 

 than any other variety except one or. two recent importations from 

 west-central Asia which do not appear to be good milling wheats. 

 The origin of this variety is not definitely known ; the stock used by 

 the South Dakota station in these investigations was obtained from 

 G. H. Carroll, of Miller, S. Dak., who obtained it from Iowa. It is 

 probable that if the original source could be located it would be 

 some region with a climate similar to that of this State, possibly the 

 " black-earth " region of south-central Russia. 



