18 



BULLETIN 297, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



yields nearly as high as those of the best durum varieties. Brief de- 

 scriptions of the more important varieties of durum and common 

 wheat grown at Newell are given herewith, and heads of typical varie- 

 ties are shown in figure 3. A more complete discussion of hard spring- 

 wheat varieties will be found in another publication. 1 



Durum wheat. — The heads of durum wheat 2 are broader and more 

 compact and the beards are longer than those of the spring common 

 varieties. The kernels are large and very hard and are usually clear 

 amber in color. There is considerable variation among the durum 

 wheats in the color of chaff and of beards. The leading varieties at 

 Newell all have yellowish, hairless chaff and yellow beards. They all 

 belong to the Kubanka group of durum wheats. 



The highest average yields for the six years from 1908 to 1913, in- 

 clusive, were produced by the Kubanka, C. I. Nos. 1440 and 1516, and 



Fig. 3.— Representative heads of the different groups of wheat discussed in this bulletin: 1, Turkey winter; 

 2, Fife; S, Preston; 4, bluestem; .5, durum. 



the Arnautka, C. I No. 1493. There is practically no difference in 

 the average yields of these three lots, nor is there much difference in 

 the appearance of the varieties. Somewhat lower yields were pro- 

 duced by the Pererodka and Yellow Gharnovka A r arieties, though the 

 difference even here is slight. 



All these varieties except the Arnautka were introduced into the 

 United States from Russia by the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture in 1899 and have since been grown in the northern Great 

 Plains. The Arnautka variety was brought in and grown by fanners 

 at an earlier date. It is still probably more widely grown than any 

 other durum wheat in the United States, though the quality of the 



1 Ball, C. R., and Clark, .T. A. Varieties of hard spring wheal. V. S. Dept. Alt., Farmers' Bui. i'.s0,20p., 

 7 fig., 1915. 



3 For a more complete discussion of durum wheat, see Salmon, Cecil, and Clark, .1. A. Durum wheat. 

 U. S. Dept, Apr., Farmers' Bui. 534, 16 p., 4 fig., 1913. 



