238 DRY-FARMING 



The extreme hardness of these wheats made it diffi- 

 cult to induce the millers operating mills fitted for 

 grinding softer wheats to accept them for fiour- 

 making purposes. This prejudice has, however, 

 gradually vanished, and to-day the durum wheats are 

 in great demand, especially for blending with the 

 softer wheats and for the making of macaroni. Re- 

 cently the popularity of the durum wheats among 

 the farmers has l)oen enhanced, owing to the dis- 

 co verv that thev are strongly rust resistant. (See 

 Fig. Gl.) 



The ivinter wheats, as has been repeatedly sug- 

 gested in preceding chapters, are most desirable for 

 dry-farm purjioses, wherever they can be grown, and 

 especially in localities when' a fair precipitation oc- 

 curs in the winter and sirring. The hard winter 

 wheats are re]3resented mainly Ijy the Crimean group, 

 the chief members (jf which are Turkey, Ivliarkow, 

 and Crimean. These wheats also originated in 

 Russia and are said to Irave been brought to the 

 United States a generation ago )Dy ^lennonite colo- 

 nists. At i)resent these wheats are grown chiefly in 

 the central and southern parts of the Great Plains 

 area and in Canada, though they are rapidly sj^reading 

 over the intermountain countr5^ These are good 

 milling wheats of high gluten content and yielding 

 abundantly under dry-farm conditions. It is quite 

 clear that these wheats will soon displace the older 

 winter wheats formerly grown on chy-farms. Turkey 



