150 BULLETIN 1074, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



PEESTON (VELVET CHAFF). 





Description. — Plant spring habit, midseason, midtall; stem white, sometimes 

 faintly purple, especially on lower internodes, midstrong ; spike awned, fusi- 

 form, middense, inclined; glumes glabrous, white, midlong, midwide, easily 

 deciduous ; shoulders wanting to narrow, oblique ; beaks 1 to 3 mm. long ; awns 

 2 to 7 cm. long ; kernels red, midlong, hard, ovate ; germ midsized ; crease nar- 

 row to midwide, shallow to middeep, triangular; cheeks angular; brush mid- 

 sized, midlong. 



The kernels of Preston are distinguished from other hard red wheats by 

 the dull seed coat and the rather narrow triangular crease. A spike, glumes, 

 and kernels of Preston wheat are shown in Plate XLI, A. 



History. — The Preston variety was bred from a cross between Ladoga, a 

 Siberian wheat, and Red Fife. The hybrid was made by Dr. William Saunders, 

 at the Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa, Canada, in 1888. It was grown 

 at the experiment station at Indian Head, Saskatchewan, as early as 1893, and 



was sent to the Minnesota Agricul- 

 tural Experiment Station for grow- 

 ing in the spring of 1896. 



It is not known definitely that 

 the "Velvet Chaff" wheat now 

 widely grown is Preston and is the 

 result of the above distribution. 

 It is probable that some of this 

 wheat is an older variety from 

 which the original name had been 

 lost. In addition to the synonyms, 

 listed below, which represent sorts 

 apparently identical with the com- 

 mercial Velvet Chaff spring wheat, 

 there are types of wheat found 

 within the Java variety which can not be distinguished from the Velvet Chaff 

 or Preston. 



Distribution. — Grown (principally as "Velvet Chaff") in Colorado, Illinois, 

 Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South 

 Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. (Fig. 59.) 



Synonyms. — Bearded Fife, Blue Ribbon, Climax, Golden Drop, Johnson, 

 Johnson's Early Fife, Minnesota No. 188, Red Fife, Velvet Chaff. 



Bearded Fife is the name chiefly used for the Preston variety in South 

 Dakota since 1904, or earlier, although in more recent years it is commonly 

 called Velvet Chaff. The name Bearded Fife was used to distinguish this 

 wheat, which was also often called Red Fife, from the well-known Red Fife 

 wheat of Canada. Blue Ribbon is the name of a selected lot of a wheat, appar- 

 ently identical with Preston, distributed by H, E. Krueger, of Beaver Dam. 

 Wis., since about 1909. He stated 23 that the wheat " was selected 10 years ago, 

 from an old fife variety, and ripens about with Marquis." Blue Ribbon is 

 grown in Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, North Dakota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Climax, 

 sometimes called South Dakota Climax, was first obtained by the South Da- 

 kota Agricultural Experiment Station in 1903 from John Carpenter, Hetland, 

 S. Dak. It apparently is the Preston variety and was formerly grown to a con- 

 siderable extent under the name Climax in South Dakota. Golden Drop is the 

 name under which a sample of wheat identical with Preston was obtained in 



Fig. 59. — Outline map of the northwestern 

 United States, showing the distribution of 

 Preston wheat in 1919. Estimated area, 

 2,233,200 acres. 



-" Correspondence with the Office of Cereal Investigations, dated Apr. 26, 1917. 



