276 ESSAYS ON WHEAT 



the grains of some of Mr. Wheeler's wheats sprouted from 

 the heads standing in the fields ; but Kitchener did not do 

 this. In that year, Kitchener gave a better result than 

 the other strains of Marquis in point of uniformity, in 

 the color, shape, and size of the grains, and in apparent 

 yield. In 1913 a hailstorm destroyed many of Mr. 

 "Wheeler's plants. All the soft-strawed and bearded wheats 

 such as bearded strains of Ked Bobs, Preston, and some 

 other wheats, were dashed to the ground. Kitchener, how- 

 ever, stood the test well, even better than Marquis. 



Kitchener, Mr. Wheeler feels, has the finest straw of any 

 wheat, for it is not only strong but also very elastic. 

 It ripens about the same time as Marquis, occasionally 

 perhaps a little later, and is later than Red Bobs, Euby, 

 and Prelude. In 1914 a sheaf of it won an international 

 prize at Denver, Colorado; and in 1915 a quarter of an 

 acre hand-selected seed plot yielded at the rate of 80 

 bushels to the acre, at about the same rate as the yield 

 of Marquis on Mr. Wheeler's farm in 1911. In 1916 

 Kitchener won the sweep-stake for the best wheat at the 

 International Soils Products Exposition at El Paso, Texas. 

 In 1917, one field plot yielded 63 bushels to the acre and 

 another 50 bushels. It is evident that the yielding quali- 

 ties of Kitchener under field conditions at Eosthern are 

 very high. Kitchener is now distributed to a number 

 of farmers in the three western provinces, and it has also 

 been grown in Ontario where its yield has been excellent. 

 In the south and southwest parts of the Prairie Provinces, 

 where it is dry, and where Red Fife is grown in preference 

 to Marquis on account of its longer straw, Kitchener prob- 

 ably has a future owing to superiority in length and 

 strength of straw. It will doubtless have its day for a 

 little while at least in some places. 



Kitchener, like Marquis, is not absolutely awnless, and 



