6 BULLETIlSr 357, U. S. DEPAETMEISTT OF AGEICULTURE. 



eral it tells that when the coffin of an Egyptian mummy 3,000 or 

 4.000 years old was opened, some wheat was found. Seed was 

 planted, but only a single kernel grew. The resulting plant proved 

 a wonderful yielder and very different from any wheat now known. 



Of course, this story in all its forms is a fabrication, pure and 

 simple. Stored under most favorable conditions, seeds of wheat will 

 not keep their vitality more than a few years. No wheat thousands 

 of years old has ever been known to germinate. 



The name Egyptian wheat has recently been used in exploit- 

 ing a very different crop, namely, a variety of sorghum properly 

 known as shallu.^ The name INIiracle has been recently used for an 

 entirely different kind of wheat. The name Wild Goose has been 

 used also for Arnautka durum wheat and for Polish wheat. 



It alwaj^s has seemed easj^ to interest people in this wheat. The 

 branched head and the mummy, wild-goose, and other stories have 

 been the very profitable stock in trade of many a promoter. It seems 

 very natural to many people that if an unbranchecl head will yield 

 so much, a branched head should jdeld much more. Head for head, 

 this m.a.Y sometimes be true, but acre for acre it is not, as shown by 

 the results of experiment. The wheat is not grown commercially 

 anywhere in this country, and ought not to be until it is shown to 

 possess better qualities than are known at present. 



RECENT EXPLOITATION OF ALASKA WHEAT. 



In the early summer of 1908 accounts of what was claimed to be a 

 wonderful new wheat appeared in the press. These set forth in brief 

 that in 1904 an Idaho farmer had found, in a secluded spot on the 

 Alaskan coast, a wheat plant with branched heads. They further 

 stated he had brought back one head and sowed its seed that fall, 

 increasing the quantity to 7 pounds in 1905 and to 1,545 pounds in 

 1906, the latter being an increase of 220 fold, from which it was 

 argued that sowing 1 bushel to the acre would produce 220 bushels. 



One of the statements about the wheat which awakened much in- 

 terest in the Eastern States was al follows: - 



And, last and best of all, it will bring back wheat raising to the worn-out 

 farms of the East, where, with wheat yields 200 bushels to the acre, farmers 

 can afford to use manures and chemicals and make a profit. 



There was obtained soon after a well-illustrated advertising cir- 

 cular containing exaggerated and misleading statements regarding 

 the origin of the wheat, its yielding power, its milling value, its 

 drought and cold resistance, its adaptability to poor soils, etc. This 



1 Ball, C. R. Three muGh-misrepresented sorghums. U. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. Plant Indus. 

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



2 Day, O. F. G. A miracle in wheat. In Sat. Even. Post, v. 181, no. 7, p. 11. 1908. 

 The assertions made in this article were later disavowed by the paper. (Editorial, Sat. 

 Even. Post, v. 181, no. 11, p. 16. 1908.) 



