UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



BULLETIN No. 478 



Joint Contribution from the Bureau of Plant Industry 

 WM. A. TAYLOR, Chief, and the Office of Markets and 

 J&jp'^p&U Rural Organization, CHARLES J. BRAND, Chief 



Washington, D. C. T December 30, 1916 



THE ORIGIN, CHARACTERISTICS, AND QUALITY OF 

 HUMPBACK WHEAT. 1 



By Levi M. Thomas, Assistant in Charge of the United States Grain-Standardization 

 Laboratory at Fargo, N. Dak. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The term Humpback is applied to a strain of wheat which is being 

 grown to an increasing extent in Minnesota and to a limited extent 

 in the Dakotas. This wheat has found favor with the producers 

 because of the large yields claimed for it, but it is generally discrim- 

 inated against by the grain trade because of its alleged inferior mill- 

 ing qualities. 



This strain of wheat is said to be the result of a field selection by 

 J. P. Berglund, a farmer living near Kensington, Minn., who about 

 18 years ago found, growing in a field of Bluestem wheat, a plant 

 distinguished from the rest of the field by bearded heads and a more 

 vigorous growth. The seed from this plant was saved and planted 

 separately, producing a strain of wheat known as Humpback, which 

 wheat was first distributed among the Kensington farmers 11 or 12 

 years ago. It was originally called Bearded Bluestem, a name given 

 to it by Mr. Berglund because it has the characteristic velvety chafl 

 of Bluestem, but it soon earned -the more popular name of Hump- 

 back, owing to the peculiar shape of the kernels, the dorsal side being 

 characterized by a prominence immediately to the rear of the germ 

 and a curved slope toward the brush, making the term Humpback 

 quite descriptive. 2 The term Marvel, and perhaps other names, has 

 been applied to this variety by distributors of the seed. 



1 The investigations reported herein were made by the Office of Grain Standardization of the Bureau 

 of Plant Industry. Since August 18, 1916, the grain-standardization work of the Department of Agri- 

 culture has been administered jointly by the Office of Markets and Rural Organization and the Bureau 

 of Plant Industry in connection with the administration of the United States Grain Standards Act. 



The data contained in this bulletin represent the results of investigations made by Mr. Levi M. 

 Thomas, in charge of the Grain-Standardization Laboratory at Fargo, where special investigations are 

 being carried on in cooperation with the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station relative to the 

 milling and baking value of different classes and grades of wheat. 



2 Certain eastern soft-wheat varieties have this same characteristic to fully as marked a deegree as the 

 Humpback. The variety known as Rural New Yorker No. 57 is especially similar to the Humpback in 

 all general characters. 



Note.— This bulletin will be of interest to millers and grain dealers in the States of North Dakota, 

 South Dakota, Minnesota, and Montana, and to the grain exchanges and inspection departments in the 

 various markets. 



63086°— Bull. 47S— 16 



