UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
BULLETIN No. 878 
Contribution from the Bureau of Plant Industry 
WM. A. TAYLOR, Chief 
Washington, D. C. 
PROFESSIONAL PAPER 
November 9, 1920 
VARIETAL EXPERIMENTS WITH SPRING WHEAT 
ON THE NORTHERN GREAT PLAINS. 
By J. Allen Clark, Agronomist in Charge, John H. Martin, Assistant Agrono- 
mist, and Ralph W. Smith, Scientific Assistant, Western Wheat Investigations, Office 
of Cereal Investigations. 
CONTENTS. 
Scope of the investigations 1 
Sources of experimental data 2 
Varieties 2 
Strains of common and durum wheat 2 
Key to groups of spring wheat 3 
Common wheat 3 
Durum wheat 8 
Page. 
Varietal experiments 11 
Northern half of the Great Plains area 11 
Results of field experiments 13 
Milling and baking experiments 41 
Summary of results 46 
Publications on cereals in the Great Plains area. 48 
SCOPE OF THE INVESTIGATIONS. 
Ht The purpose of this bulletin is to present the results obtained to 
date x from varietal experiments with spring wheat at 11 field 
stations in the northern half of the Great Plains area. What the 
principal varieties are, how and when they came to be, and how to 
tell them apart are stated. The particular section or district for 
which certain varieties are recommended is given also, and the yields, 
agronomic factors, and milling values of the varieties are discussed. 
In this northern Great Plains area severe losses have occurred 
recently, due to drought, blight, rust, and scab. Land values, how- 
ever, have risen in about the same proportion as in other sections, and 
with the increased cost of production and higher prices obtained for 
» wheat the growing of poorly adapted varieties has become much more 
unprofitable than formerly. This has increased the demand for 
information on comparative yields of varieties and their resistance to 
disease. 
1 A list of publications showing the results of earlier experiments is given at the end of this bulletin. 
184125°— 20— Bull. 878 1 
