

Wheat Investigations. 47 



tion arises as to whether local or imported wheat should be used 

 for seed. The best policy would be to secure local varieties of 

 wheat of known performance in regard to yield and milling and 

 baking quality. Such wheat varieties, however, are not gener- 

 ally available, and it has been a common practice with the Aroos- 

 took grower to import his wheat seed, usually from the North- 

 west. In importing wheat seed the practice of buying seed from 

 mixed car lots of unknown varieties should be discouraged. Our 

 experience with the Minnesota strains clearly indicates that in 

 order to secure a satisfactory seed it is not enough to import 

 hard wheats from the Northwestern Plains, for certain varieties 

 and strains show a greater capacity for adaptation to humid 

 regions than others. Thus the two strains of the Royalton 

 wheat retained strength under Aroostook conditions yielding 

 grain with a high percentage of protein, very good gluten with 

 strong expansive qualities and good appearing loaves of good 

 volume and very good quality. On the other hand the Marquis 

 strain yielded a gluten with only medium quality and a flour 

 lacking in strength. From this it is evident that an imported 

 variety will first have to be tested for its capacity for retaining 

 its strength under Aroostook conditions, and it is, therefore, 

 essential not only to import seed from known varieties but that 

 these varieties should be as free from admixtures as this is pos- 

 sible with commercial varieties. The more a variety approaches 

 the condition of a pure strain the sooner and the more certain 

 will its degree of adaptability to new conditions be determined. 



While no definite recommendations can be made, as yet, as 

 to the best variety for Aroostook conditions, our data furnish 

 some information which may be of practical value. Under Aroos- 

 took conditions the Marquis strains did not make a good show- 

 ing. They all yielded flour with short stiff gluten of only fair 

 quality. Coupled with this rather low quality is a low yielding 

 capacity. This is rather unfortunate as the early maturity of 

 the Marquis would make this variety otherwise very desirable 

 for Aroostook conditions. 



The Preston strains are good yielders but only a few excel 

 in quality though a number of them showed a high protein con- 

 tent. The growing of strong strains of the Preston group 

 should be encouraged as they are well adapted to the conditions 

 of Northern Maine. 



