2 BULLETIN 357^ U. S. DEPAETMEIsrT OF AGEICULTURE. 



wonderful productiveness claimed for the branched heads of the 

 so-called Alaska wheat. Alwaj^s, however, the yields are said to 

 be enormous. Sometimes the same variety is exploited again and 

 again under a new name and with a new and wonderful story.^ 



The present paper deals with two misrepresented varieties of 

 wheat. They have had very interesting and varied histories in past 

 years. This bulletin tells what they really are, gives the story of 

 their origin, quotes the claims made for them, and states what they 

 may reasonably be expected to do under average conditions. 



Active efforts to promote the sale of these wheats are still being 

 made and many farmers are being misled into purchasing them be- 

 cause of the plausible statements made by the promoters. The United 

 States Department of Agi-iculture and the State agricultural experi- 

 ment stations endeavor to keep informed concerning all such exploi- 

 tations and to warn their constituents of the danger. The present 

 paper is the result of this endeavor. 



ALASKA WHEAT. 



The so-called Alaska wheat is merely a very old variety under 

 a new name. Attempts to promote it under one or another of its 

 many names have been numerous and persistent for more than a 

 hundred years. There is evidence that these exploitations usually 

 have been profitable to promoters and expensive to purchasers. In 

 order that the reader may know definitely some of the ways in which 

 it has been promoted its history is given rather fully. Quotations 

 from early American writers show former exploitations, while the 

 most recent one is fully discussed. These instances should serve to 

 put readers on guard against future exploitations. This wheat has 

 never been proved to have value anywhere in the United States. 



DESCRIPTION OF ALASKA WHEAT. 



The variety recentl}^ exploited under the name Alaska wheat 

 belongs to the poulard subspecies of wheat. Botanicalty, the poulard 

 wheats are known as Triticum turgidum or Triticum aestivum 

 turgidum. They are somewhat intermediate between the common and 

 the durum wheats. All of them are bearded, and the beards are more 

 or less intermediate in their length and color between those of com- 

 mon wheat and those of durum wheat. They have the peculiarly 

 flattened heads, the broad chaff, and the amber kernels of the durums. 

 The chaff, however, is rather thin and papery, and the kernels are 

 shorter, softer, and more humpbacked than those of durum wheat. 



These wheats are not gi^own commercially anywhere in this coun- 

 try, and the relationships of the different varieties are not well known. 



1 See Ball, C. R. " Three much-misrepresented sorghums," U. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. Plant 

 Indus. Cir. 50, 14 p., 2 fig. 1910. 



