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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



since 1864, but more particularly for the last three years, to introduce 

 the cultivation of certain varieties of hard Wheat into America. 



The name of Macaroni Wheats has been fixed upon to denote the 

 kinds with which they have been experimenting, and which are all 

 varieties of Triticum durum, Triticum polonicum, and Triticum turgidum. 

 They were introduced principally from South Russia, but some came 

 from Algeria and Chile, and one variety, that known as Wild Goose 

 Wheat, is said to have originated with a few grains found by a hunter in 

 a wild goose's crop in Canada. The cultivation of it there has spread so 

 that three and one-third million bushels have been shipped from Canada 

 to Marseilles between March 1, 1891, and the date of this bulletin, to be 

 used in the manufacture of macaroni. The problems which the Depart- 

 ment set itself to solve were, first, to find a class of W T heat suitable for 

 cultivation over portions of the American great plains which from 

 drought and the alkaline nature of the soil were obviously not adapted 

 to ordinary bread Wheats, and then to provide a ready market for the 

 unusual crop thus produced. 



A careful comparison of soil, climate, and rainfall revealed that almost 

 identical conditions with those of large portions of the great plains prevailed 

 in East Russia, from the latitude of Kazan to the Caspian Sea, but ex- 

 tending eastward even beyond the Siberian boundary into the Khirghis 

 Steppes ; this being precisely the region from which the macaroni 

 manufacturers of Italy, France, and Spain draw their immense supplies 

 of hard Wheat necessary for the successful preparation of the semolina to 

 be afterwards converted into macaroni, spaghetti, &c. 



As an experimental proof of the accuracy of the comparison, it is 

 stated that since 1864, when some of the variety known as Amantha 

 Wheat was imported by the Department and distributed in Texas and 

 Dakota, it has been seen that hard Wheat would flourish and resist what 

 would have been absolutely unfavourable conditions to ordinary bread 

 Wheats. These early efforts at its introduction proved fruitless, however, 

 as it seemed impossible to obtain a market for the crop. American 

 bakers had not learnt to make bread of it ; American millers and elevator 

 men refused to handle it together with other kinds ; the native macaron 

 makers had not yet discovered the reason of the inferiority of their manu- 

 facture to the foreign article to be in their use of soft Wheat ; and no 

 market abroad had yet been opened up. 



All this, however, the Department has set itself to alter, while en- 

 couraging the growth of the Wheat in a belt of country stretching south- 

 wards through North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, 

 and Texas. Already the native macaroni manufacturers are using it ; 

 millers and elevator men are adapting themselves to it ; and in time, with 

 the help of the American consuls in France and Italy, the Department 

 expresses the hope that American hard Wheat will almost entirely oust 

 the Russian and Canadian exports.— M. L. II. 



Mahogany. On the occurrence of the meliaceous genus Pseudo- 

 cedrda (Harms) in the Togo region A:c. By H. Harms (Not Konitj. 

 Bot. Berlin, vol iii. (1902), No. 28, p. 167).— The only species (P.Kotschyi, 

 Schweinf.) so far known to the author conies from Abyssinia &c, and 



