CLASSIFICATION OF AMERICAN WHEAT VARIETIES. 141 



rust. It thrashes very easily. It should be cut rather early, as it is liable to 

 shell if left till fully ripe. The quality of the flour is equal to any other spring 

 wheat. It is said to yield from 15 to 40 bushes per acre. 



China Tea wheat was listed in 1863, in a report of the standing committee of 

 the Iowa Agricultural Society, as the first spring-wheat variety preferred by 

 growers (4, p. 518). This fact, together with the identity of the samples grown 

 by the writers and the importance of Java in Iowa, indicates that Java is sim- 

 ply a new name for the. China Tea variety. China Tea was reported from New 

 York in 1919. 



In 1S99 Wallaces' Farmer, of Des Moines, Iowa, published several short arti- 

 cles on the desirability of growing early varieties of wheat and oats. A request 

 was made to their readers to report any variety of spring wheat that was 

 grown which would ripen in Iowa by the Fourth of July. Among several of the 

 varieties that were reported was the Early Java, from C. F. Morton, south- 

 eastern Nebraska (26) . As a result of this request, Early 

 Java wheat was grown in 1900 at the Iowa Agricultural 

 Experiment Station, Ames, Iowa, and on the farm of 

 M. E. Ashby, living 5 miles north of Des Moines. For 

 several years Wallaces' Farmer entered into an active 

 campaign for the distribution of Early Java wheat. The 

 variety thus became quite widely grown in that State. 

 In a recent issue of Wallaces' Farmer the following ref- 

 erence concerning the origin of the variety is given (33) : FlG - 56.— Outline map 



of the north-central 



About 20 years ago a southeastern Nebraska farmer United States, show- 

 was growing an early variety of spring wheat under the ing the distribution of 

 name of Early Iowa or Early Java. He wrote to Henry Java wheat in 1919. 

 Wallace, of Wallaces' Farmer, about it in 1899, and as Estimated area, 55,- 

 a result Mr. Wallace wrote about it considerably in the ooo acres, 

 paper and induced a number of Iowa farmers to try it 



out. In a short time the Early Java became the most popular spring wheat in 

 Iowa. No one knew where it came from originally. . . . 



Early Java may be a misspelling of " Early Jowa," the German spelling of 

 Early Iowa, given above as a synonym. This possibly is an explanation of the 

 origin of the name Early Java. 



Distribution. — Grown in Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and Wisconsin, and as 

 China Tea in New York. (Fig. 56.) 



Synonyms. — Black Tea, China Tea, Early Iowa, Siberian, Swedish, and Tea 

 Leaf. Swedish is a name under which samples of Java have been received 

 from Nebraska. It is evidently a local name for Java wheat in that State. 

 Tea Leaf was reported for Java from Iowa. The other synonyms listed above 

 have been mentioned in the history of Java. 



EEIVAN. 



Description. — Plant spring habit, early, short; stem white, slender, very 

 weak; spike awned, fusiform, middense, nodding; glumes glabrous, white, 

 midlong, narrow ; shoulders mid wide, usually elevated ; beaks 3 to 25 mm. long ; 

 awns 2 to 7 cm. long; kernels red, midlong, soft, elliptical, humped; germ 

 small ; crease midwide, shallow ; cheeks usually angular ; brush small, midlong. 



Erivan differs from Java chiefly in having an elevated shoulder on the glume. 



History. — The Erivan variety (S. P. I. No. 9871) was introduced by the 

 United States Department of Agriculture (197) in 1903, from the dry moun- 

 tain district of the Erivan Government in Transcaucasian Russia, near the 

 border of Persia. 



