272 ESSAYS ON WHEAT 



VIII. Description of Bed Bobs 



Eed Bobs is a hard red spring wheat. Its heads are 

 absolutely awnless and of a compact type, the spikelets 

 in a good year being well filled with grains from the 

 bottom to the top of each head. The heads are very up- 

 right with little or no tendency to lean, and the straw 

 is very strong, upright, and yellow. The chaff is white 

 or light yellow, lighter than that of Marquis. The up- 

 right tendency allows the heads to lie closely in the sheaf 

 with little or no waste. On the average, on Mr. Wheel- 

 er's farm, Red Bobs has been a week earlier in ripening 

 than Marquis since 1912 inclusive, and it has yielded 

 a little more than Marquis each year. In 1917 Marquis 

 yielded 40 bushels to the acre and Eed Bobs 53. This, 

 however, is an extreme difference in the yield of the two 

 varieties. The grains are of a good red color, short 

 and rounded, and they give a good weight per measured 

 bushel. Their baking and milling qualities are about 

 equal to those of Marquis. The most remarkable point 

 about Bed Bobs, as grown on Mr. Wheeler's farm, is the 

 combination of earliness and yield. Mr. Wheeler feek 

 that this new variety, owing to its combination of earliness, 

 high yield, high baking and milling qualities, and the 

 characters of its head and straw, has no equal. An ab- 

 solute decision of its merits, however, can only be arrived 

 at after it has been tested under diverse conditions for a 

 series of years. 



IX. A Visit to Mr. Wheeler^s Farm 



A brief note may here be added of a personal nature. 

 The author, as already remarked, visited Mr. Seager 

 Wheeler at his farm on August 23, 1918 ; and there spent 

 a very happy day in his company, looking over his plots, 



