12 BULLETIN 1046, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUEE. 



The names are those which appear in the records of the Kansas 

 Agricultural Experiment Station. Most of the varieties in the 

 bearded, glabrous-glumed, hard red-kerneled group are very similar 

 to the well-known Turkey and Kharkof varieties. 



Ne^arly all the winter-wheat varieties proved to be very susceptible 

 to stem rust (PI. III). Three of the pedigreed strains, however, were 

 found to be remarkably resistant. These were Kanred and two un- 

 named varieties, P1066 and P1068. These three pure-line selections 

 differ morphologically from Turkey and Kharkof in the greater length 

 of the short awn or beak found at the tip of the outer or empty glume. 

 The average length of the beak in these three varieties is considerably 

 greater than in the case of Turkey, Crimean, and Kharkof.^ The va- 

 riety P762 (Kansas No. 2401) was named Kanred (from Kansas Red) 

 and distributed to farmers in 1914. The other two resistant strains, 

 P1066 and P1068, are very similar to Kanred; in fact, the three 

 strains seem to be morphologically identical. They appear to differ 

 slightly in certain agronomic characters, such as yield, winter hardi- 

 ness, and grain quality. The experimental data which are available 

 indicate that each of these other two selections is equal to Kanred in 

 yield and other agronomic qualities, although they have not been 

 grown as long in plats at the agronomy farm and have not been com- 

 pared at the branch experiment stations or in cooperative experiments 

 with farmers. 



These three strains did not attract any particular attention in 1915, 

 as they seemed as heavily rusted (40 to 70 per cent) as many of the 

 other varieties, but in 1916 and 1917 very different results were ob- 

 tained.^ They were almost free from stem rust (PI. IV). The 

 estimated infections of rust on these three varieties in 1916 were 10, 

 5, and 5 per cent respectively, and in 1917 they were 10, 15, and 5 to 

 25 per cent, respectively, compared to the maximum figures of 95 to 98 

 per cent on other varieties in the same seasons. 



The only other variety of winter wheat which gave any evidence 

 of resistance was Kansas No. 2390. The infection of stem rust on 

 plants of this variety was estimated at 40 per cent in 1915, at 30 per 

 cent in 1916, and as "Trace to 40 per cent " in 1917. This variety 

 was much less heavily rusted than many other varieties in 1916 and 

 i917, but it does not appear to be nearly as resistant as Kanred, 

 P1066, and P1068. 



' This distinguishing character was first called to the attention of the -writers by Carleton R. Ball and 

 J. Allen Clark, of the Office of Cereal Investigations. 



8 In the light of present knowledge of the existence of several biologic strains of stem rust, with difler- 

 ent infection capabilities, the results in 1915 are easily explained as being due to the presence in the rust 

 nursery of one or more strains of stem rust which were able to attack these varieties. 



