CLASSIFICATION OF AMERICAN WHEAT VARIETIES. 183 



from a friend in England, who had obtained a very small quantity from an im- 

 portation made into that country from Argentina. The wheat was first grown 

 on the San Juan Islands, in Washington, by Mr. Towell, and by 1916 he had 

 about 100 acres. J. C. Hawkins, then a student at the Oregon Agricultural 

 College, contracted to sell the wheat in 1916 for seed at $i a pound. He gave 

 it the name Titanic, because of the marine disaster which occurred during the 

 year the variety was introduced, Mr. Towell, the introducer, being one of the 

 surviving passengers on the vessel. 



Distribution. — Grown to a very small extent in the Puget Sound section of 

 Washington. 



WINTER ALASKA. 



Description. — Plant winter habit, late, midtall ; stem white, midstrong, stout; 

 spike branched, awned, nodding; glumes pubescent, brown, short, narrow; 

 shoulders narrow, usually oblique ; beaks 1 to 2 mm. long ; awns black, usually 

 deciduous ; awns 3 to 10 cm. long ; kernels red, small to midsized, hard, often 

 becoming starchy, ovate ; germ midsized ; crease midwide, shallow ; cheeks angu- 

 lar; brush midsized, short. 



This variety differs from Titanic in having red kernels. 



History. — Winter Alaska was obtained from the Washington Agricultural 

 Experiment Station, Pullman, Wash., in 1917. It was grown by that station for 

 several years previous, but its previous history could not be traced. 



Distribution. — Grown in experiments at experiment stations in Washington 

 and commercially to a small extent in the vicinity of Puyallup, Pierce County, 

 Wash. 



DURUM WHEAT. 



The plants of durum wheat usually are of spring habit and tall. 

 The peduncle is pithy, at least in the upper portion. The spikes are 

 compact and laterally compressed, and hence are narrower when seen 

 in a face view. The glumes are persistent, sharply keeled, and the 

 lemmas always awned except in a few awnless forms recently origi- 

 nated by hybridization. The awns are long and coarse and are 

 white, yellow, brown, or black. The kernels are white or red and 

 usually rather long and pointed ; they are very hard and translucent, 

 making the white-kerneled forms appear amber-colored. The ker- 

 nels always have a short brush and angular cheeks and are the hard- 

 est of all known wheats. 



The durum wheats, as before stated, are sometimes very similar to 

 certain poulard varieties. The spikes, however, usually are much 

 thinner, the glumes are longer, and the kernels are longer, more 

 slender, and usually much harder. 



Durum wheat has been widely grown in the United States only 

 during the past 20 years. Most of the varieties were introduced from 

 southern Eussia and the Mediterranean region, where these wheats 

 principally are grown. Certain introductions, including Kubanka, 

 made by the Department of Agriculture about 1900, became popular 

 with farmers in the northern Great Plains and Prairie sections and 

 the production rapidly increased. The distribution of durum wheat 



