152 BULLETIN 1074, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



South Dakota, Wyoming, and Wisconsin. As the name Velvet Chaff is a mis- 

 nomer when applied to this type of wheat, the name Preston has been used in 

 preference to it by the United States Department of Agriculture and by most 

 experiment stations since 1915. It is thought by the writers that most of the 

 wheat grown under the name of Velvet Chaff and other synonyms above 

 recorded is really the Preston variety, although some of it is doubtless of 

 earlier origin. 



KOTA. 



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

 midstrong ; spike awned, fusiform, middense, inclined ; glumes glabrous, white, 

 midlong, midwide ; shoulders midwide, square to elevated ; beaks narrow, 3 

 to 20 mm. long ; awns 3 to 8 cm. long ; kernels red, midlong, hard, ovate to ellipti- 

 cal, slightly humped ; germ small ; crease wide, usually shallow ; cheeks usually 

 angular ; brush small, short to midlong. 



Kota can be distinguished from Preston by the longer beaks and elevated 

 shoulders. The kernels are more humped and have a smaller germ. Kota is 

 resistant to many forms of stem rust and also is quite drought resistant. It 

 also is a good milling and bread-making wheat. A spike, glumes, and kernels 

 of Kota are shown in Plate XLI, B. 



History. — The Kota variety was obtained in Russia by Prof. H. L. Bolley, 

 of the North Dakota Agricultural College, in 1903, while making a study of the 

 flax industry of Europe for the United States Department of Agriculture. It 

 was introduced either as a separate lot, later designated by Professor Bolley 

 as " R. B. R. 3," or as a mixture in a sample of durum wheat. It recently was 

 separated from Monad durum wheat, found to be resistant to some forms of 

 stem rust and to have high agronomic and milling values, and was named Kota 

 in 1919 by Waldron and Clark (200, p. 187-195). The name is a part of the 

 name North Dakota. 



Distribution. — Grown to a small extent in Cass County, N. Dak., in 1920. 

 It is also grown at several experiment stations and is used as a parent in 

 breeding for rust-resistant spring wheats. 



Synonym. — " R. B. R. 3." This is the designation used by Professor Bolley, 

 of the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station, for a wheat identical 

 with Kota. According to Professor Bolley, R. B. R. 3 was one of his original in- 

 troductions from Russia in 1903, introduced as S. P. I. No. 10214. 24 The un- 

 published record for this number in the Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Intro- 

 duction is " winter wheat from Balachof, Tambof Government," as one of 25 

 lots of wheat introduced from Russia by Professor Bolley in 1903. In 1911 

 Professor Bolley distributed his " R. B. R. 3 " to several farmers and to the 

 Langdon substation, but the variety never became commercially established by 

 that distribution. In the spring of 1919, after the discovery of resistance to 

 stem rust in Kota and its similarity to " R. B. R. 3," Professor Bolley dis- 

 tributed a second lot, consisting of about a bushel of seed, to Mr. Jalmer Herre, 

 Kelso, N. Dak., who was the first farmer to increase it. 



Description. — Plant spring habit, early, midtall; stem usually white, a faint 

 purple sometimes appearing on lower internodes, weak to midstrong; spike 

 awned, fusiform, middense, inclined; glumes glabrous, white, midlong to long, 

 narrow ; shoulders wanting to narrow, oblique ; beaks 1 to 5 mm. long ; awns 2 



24 Correspondence with J. A. Clark, Office of Cereal Investigations, dated Apr. 18, 1919. 



