48 Maine Agricultural Experiment Station. 1920 



The Canada Red strains (Ladoga type), while good yield- 

 ers should be dropped on account of their low bread making 

 quality. The Aroostook wheats are frequently mixed to a 

 greater or less degree with these strains which probably lower 

 the quality of the resultant flour. 



The Red Fife and Bluestem varieties furnished the strong- 

 est strains yielding flour of very good to excellent baking quality. 

 The Bluestem variety, however, is somewhat later than the Red 

 Fife which is some drawback under Aroostook conditions. Its 

 straw is perhaps not quite so strong as would be desirable and 

 its hairy chaff tends to retain more moisture than the smooth 

 chaffed varieties which may favor the attack by fungi and retard 

 the maturing of the grain. 



The Red Fife variety appears to be the best choice. The 

 Red Fife strains yielded the strongest flour and have also a sat- 

 isfactory yielding capacity. The Fife wheats have grown for 

 a number of years in Aroostook County and are well adapted 

 to the conditions of that section. From our experience and the 

 results obtained in England, Canada and Australia it appears 

 that the Red Fife wheats are characterized by a high capacity 

 for adaptation and a strong tendency to retain their strength 

 under unfavorable conditions of environment. 



Explanation of Plates. 



The photographs on plates I, II, and III represent loaves 

 of bread baked from flour of the pure lines of wheat grown at 

 Aroostook Farm. The number under each loaf refers to the 

 line of the wheat strain, except the first five loaves where the 

 figure designates the accession number. Each loaf was baked 

 from 300 grams of flour so that the size of these bread loaves 

 is directly comparable. Note the variation in volume of loaves 

 and texture of crumb. 



