70 BULLETIN 10*74, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 



to midlong, hard, oval ; germ midsized ; crease midwide, middeep to deep ; cheeks 

 rounded ; brush midsized, midlong. 



Quality is a spring wheat and is not winter hardy when fall sown. It also 

 shatters very badly in dry climates. 



History. — Quality wheat was first distributed by Luther Burbank, of Santa 

 Rosa, Calif., in 1918. In his catalogue of " New Standard Grains " (52) in 1918, 

 Mr. Burbank's first published statement concerning Quality wheat is as follows : 



This season I offer a superior early hard white wheat suited to all climates 

 wherever wheat can be grown ; as a summer wheat in the cold far northern 

 climates and as a winter crop in the United States and most wheat-growing 

 countries. It is especially adapted also to short seasons and sods and dry 

 climates. A superior wh.te milling wheat which makes the best light, sweet, 

 nutritious bread and pastry- . . . This early, hardy " Quality " wheat 

 which I offer this season will not yield as much as some of the coarse macaroni 

 wheats in some warm, dry sections, but for general culture, with its unusual 

 hardiness and extreme earliness, uniformity, superior milling and bread- 

 making qualities, it stands alone. It most resembles in all these respects the 

 hard northern wheat "Prize Marquis," but has a vitreous white berry of 

 quite different appearance and quality and of about the same specific gravity 

 as granite (52). 



The seed was originally sold at $5 per pound, or $45 for 10 pounds, i. e., at 

 the rate of $270 a bushel. Concerning these extravagant claims and prices, 

 Buller (50, p. 235) has made the following comment: 



But Mr. Burbank is only just beginning his work as an introducer of new 

 wheats, and the writer can not help feeling that in penning his advertisement of 

 Quality he allowed his enthusiasm for his new cereal to be mixed a little too 

 freely with his ink. . . . When Mr. Burbank tells us that Quality . . . 

 has kernels with about the same specific gravity as granite, surely he is ad- 

 dressing us in the language of hyperbole. 



Distribution. — Grown experimentally and to a small extent commercially in 

 California, Montana, and Oklahoma, in 1920. 



WHITE FIFE. 



Description. — Plant spring habit, midseason, midtall ; stem white, midstrong ; 

 spike awnless, fusiform, middense, erect ; glumes glabrous, white to yellowish, 

 short, midwide, shoulders midwide, oblique to square ; beaks midwide, acute, 0.5 

 to 1.0 mm. long; apical awns few, 5 to 15 mm. long; kernels wh'te, short to 

 midlong, hard, ovate ; germ midsized ; crease midwide, middeep ; cheeks angular ; 

 brush midsized, midlong. A spike of this wheat is shown in Plate IV, Figure 2. 



History. — White Fife is thought to be a white-kerneled separation from the 

 well-known Red Fife wheat of Canada, although its exact origin is undeter- 

 mined. It was grown by the Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station in 1879 

 from seed obtained from Minnesota (^6, p. 40). It was first grown in the 

 varietal experiments at Indian Head, Saskatchewan, Experimental Farm in 

 1889, where it was continued in the experiments until 1911. During this 23-year 

 period it outyielded Red Fife by nearly 1.5 bushels per acre. The variety was 

 used by Dr. A. P. Saunders as one of the parents of crosses from which origi- 

 nated the varieties Huron, Percy, and Prelude. The White Fife variety was 

 used also by Prof. A. E. Blount as a parent stock for several of his hybrids made 

 at the Colorado Agricultural College about 1888. 



Distribution. — Grown sparingly in Polk County, Minn., Sheridan County, 

 Nebr., and Richland County, N. Dak. It was reported in 1904 to have been 

 grown to a considerable extent in some parts of Manitoba and the Northwest 

 Territories. 



