ALASKA AND STONEE, OR MIEACLE/ WHEATS. 9 



Extracts from letters said to have been written by several well- 

 known agronomists of the country are frankly included also, al- 

 though unfavorable to the wheat. Their opinions may be summed 

 up in these quotations: 



Farmers are warned to avoid this wheat as they would a pestilence. 

 It is one of the poorest wheats known for flour-making purposes, and it is 

 never grown where ordinary varieties of wheat will thrive. 

 Not even good for stock feed. 

 Shun it as you would the smallpox. 

 Warning against what I must now recognize as a brazen fraud. 



The illustrations in this pcimphlet are exactly the same as those 

 in the original advertising circular. Some of the statements con- 

 tained in the previous circular are repeated, and in addition affi- 

 davits from growers, thrashers, and others are included. The only 

 figures in this circular from which a yield per acre can be deter- 

 mined are to the effect that on one field, in 1908, 501 sacks were 

 thrashed from 30 acres. Assuming that these sacks contained the 

 usual 21 bushels each, this yield would be only 37^ bushels per acre. 

 It is stated also that the 1,545 pounds grown in 1906 yielded 53,000 

 pounds in 1907. The acreage is not given, but this is an increase of 

 only 35 fold. A greatl}^ increased acreage was harvested in 1908, 

 but the acre-yields are not given. In the pamphlet the price is still 

 given as $20 a bushel, for sale by a certain seed grain company. 



Little more public attention was attracted to the Alaska wheat 

 until the spring of 1915, when it was placed on exhibition by the 

 promoter at the Panama-Pacific Exposition. Visitors at the exhibit 

 were invited to take a copy of the pamphlet just discussed. It had 

 been provided with a new cover, the last leaf of which is so pasted 

 on as to cover the name of the seed grain company and the quoted 

 price of $20 a bushel. The front cover announces that Alaska wheat, 

 " smut proof " and a " big yielder," is for sale by the promoter at 

 Juliaetta, Idaho. 



Early in 1915, also, still another exploitation of this wheat seemed 

 to be getting under way. This time a Wyoming association offered 

 the seed under the name of Egyptian Seven-Headed Wheat. The 

 price was $10 a bushel. 



YIELDS OF ALASKA WHEAT. 



An agent of the United States Department of Agriculture visited 

 the field of Alaska wheat being grown in the vicinity of Juliaetta, 

 Idaho, in 1908. There were about 700 acres in all. The yields were 

 found to vary from 10 to about 35 bushels to the acre, the average 

 yield being about 25 bushels. Other varieties, growing under condi- 

 tions apparently identical, were yielding as much and more. 



> 23342°— Bull. 357—16 2 



