172 



BULLETIN 1074, U. 



S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Distribution. — Several varieties are grown under the name of Velvet Chaff. 

 Winter wheat of this description was sparingly reported as Velvet Chaff 

 from Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, 

 Maryland, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. 



Synonyms. — Japanese Velvet Chaff and Velvet Chaff. Japanese Velvet Chaff 

 is the name under which a wheat identical with Penquite was obtained by the 

 United States Department of Agriculture at the Paris Exposition, held in 

 France, in 1900. It has been grown in experiments in Virginia and Maryland, 

 but is not known to be commercially grown. 



Velvet Chaff is the name under which Penquite (Penquite's Velvet Chaff) has 

 been best known in Ohio since about 1880. Although the name Velvet Chaff 

 has become generally used for the variety, it is also confused with, and used 

 for, other varieties, and for these reasons the name Penquite is here adopted. 



CLUB WHEAT. 



The plants of club wheat may be either winter or spring habit, and 

 either tall or short. The straw is stiff and strong. The spikes usually 



are awnless but may be awned, are 

 oblong or sometimes clavate or 

 "club shaped," short, usually less 

 than 2-J inches in length, very com- 

 pact, and laterally compressed. 

 The spikelets usually contain five 

 fertile florets and spread at nearly 

 a right angle to the rachis. The 

 glumes and lemmas are persistent, 

 so the grain does not shatter when 

 ripe. The kernels of club wheat 

 are small, laterally compressed or 

 " pinched," because of crowding in 

 the compact spikes. Most club- 

 wheat kernels have a small, short 

 brush and a narrow, very shal- 

 low crease. The grain usually is of rather poor quality for bread 

 making. 



The club wheats are distinguished from common wheats by the 

 smaller, shorter, denser, laterally compressed spikes. The varieties 

 of wheat grown in the eastern United States often referred to as club 

 because of having clavate spikes do not belong to this species, but are 

 common wheats. 



The nonshattering and stiff-strawed characters of club wheats are 

 of much economic importance in the Pacific Coast area, where they 

 are principally grown, because in that area wheat commonly is cut 

 and thrashed in one operation with a combined harvester long after 

 the grain is fully ripe. Figure 68 shows the distribution of club 

 wheats in the United States in 1919, 



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Fig. 68. — Outline map of the western 

 United States, showing the distribu- 

 tion of club wheats in 1919. Estimated 

 area, 1,02jO,300 acres. 



