CLASSIFICATION OF AMERICAN WHEAT VARIETIES. 59 



PROHIBITION. 



Description.— Plant winter habit, midseason to late, midtall to tall; stem 

 glaucous, white, strong; spike awnless, linear-oblong to subclavate, middense, 

 erect to inclined ; glumes glabrous, white, midlong, wide ; shoulders narrow to 

 midwide, oblique to rounded ; beaks wide, obtuse, 0.5 to 1.0 mm. long ; apical 

 awns few, 1 to 15 mm. long; kernels white, midlong, soft, ovate, humped; 

 germ small ; crease wide, middeep ; cheeks rounded ; brush small, midlong. 



The distinctly humped kernels is a character which can be used to distin- 

 guish this variety from the other soft white wheats of the Pacific Northwest. 

 Spikes, glumes, and kernels of this variety are shown in Plate VIII, A. 



History. — B. H. Irvine, a pioneer in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, dis- 

 tributed the variety in that State. He obtained, through a Dr. Crawford, 



Fig. 19. — Outline map of the United States, showing the distribution of Martin wheat 

 in 1919. Estimated area, 37,800 acres. 



several varieties from the Commissioner of Agriculture for trial, about 1885, 

 and grew them on his farm about 9 miles northeast of Scio, in Linn County. 

 One variety proved superior to anything then grown in the vicinity. Having 

 forgotten the name of the variety, he called it Prohibition, as he had just be- 

 come an ardent member of that political party. Later he claimed to have 

 found the descriptive sheet which accompanied the original seed and learned 

 that the name was " Ricenbroad." A Rickenbrode wheat was reported as 

 a new variety tested at Mount Pleasant, Ontario County, N. Y., in 1883 (150). 

 It was distributed in the Western States by the Commissioner of Agriculture 

 about 1885 and is without doubt the wheat referred to. Nothing further is 

 known concerning its origin. 



Distribution. — Grown in Linn and Marion Counties, Oreg., principally in 

 the Red Hills section of the Willamette Valley. 



Synonyms. — Prohi and Rickenbrode. Prohi is a colloquial shortening of the 

 name of the variety, which recently has come into use for it in the Pacific 

 Northwest. Rickenbrode apparently was the original name of the variety, but 

 has not been used for many years. 



