88 BULLETIN 1287, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
NURSERY EXPERIMENTS 
Many varieties and selections of spring wheat have,been grown in 
nursery rows, but because of their apparent lack of promise have not 
been grown in plats. A large number of foreign varieties have been 
tested in a preliminary way and later discarded. Most of the 
nursery experiments with spring wheat have consisted of the testing 
of pure-line selections made at Akron from both durum and hard red 
spring wheats. A number of-strains resulting from crosses have been 
grown. Selections from Arnautka durum wheat have appeared to be 
most promising. Two of these, Arnautka (C. I. No. 4064) and Akrona 
(C. I. No. 6881), have been grown in plats at this and other stations. 
The yields of Arnautka (C. I. No. 4064) in plat experiments have 
been less than those of the parental strain. Akrona (C. I. No. 6881) 
produced fair yields in plat experiments in 1920, 1921, and 1922. As 
it appears to be slightly earlier than the other durums grown, it may 
prove valuable. One selection of hard red spring wheat made at 
Akron, Norka (C.1. No. 4877), although otherwise inferior, has proved 
to be especially resistant to certain strains of leaf rust. 
COMPARISON OF SPRING AND WINTER WHEATS 
A comparison of the annual and average yields of Turkey and 
Kharkof winter wheats, Peliss and Arnautka durum wheats, and 
WIELD PER BORE Converse (Red Rus- 
WIVTER: S/O /5 20 sjan) hard red spring 
TURKEY wheat for the 15-year 
AA ARIO/F period from 1908 to 
1922, inclusive, is 
SPRING DURU NA: shown in Table 20. 
TDD The average yields 
ARNAUT KA of these varieties 
for this period are 
SELLING COMMON: shown graphically in 
DEN ATE Figure 16. The win- 
Fic. 16.—Average acre yields of leading varieties of winter and spring ter -wheat varieties 
wheat at the Akron Field Station during the 15-year period, 1908- outyielded the du- 
1922, inclusive, except 1919 rum wheats in 10 
out of the 13 years in which a crop was obtained. Winter wheat 
was a failure in 1909, and no winter wheat was sown in the cereal 
experiments in the fall of 1918. Converse wheat was not grown 
in 1908, but the average of the yields of two similar varieties, Erivan 
and Fretes, is included in the table. 
The average yields of Turkey and Kharkof have been 19.5 and 19.4 
bushels per acre, respectively, as compared with 17.1 bushels pro- 
duced by Peliss in the same years, 15.9 bushels by Arnautka, and 13.8 
bushels by Converse. 
The crops of winter wheat in 1915, 1916, 1920, and 1922 were 
reduced by soil‘blowing and winterkilling. Except in 1915, however, 
winter wheat outyielded spring wheat in each of these years. A com- 
plete failure of winter wheat resulted in 1909 from a combination of 
soil blowing, winterkilling, and too severe treatment of the seed for 
smut.’ Spring wheat averaged higher than winter wheat in 1908, 
° The 1909 yields of winter wheat are included as 0 in computing averages. It would have been possible 
to seed this land to spring wheat and thus avoid a total loss of crop. Had this been done the difference in 
the average yield of winter wheat over that of spring wheat would have been greater for the 15-year period 
than that shown in the tables included in this bulletin. There are arguments for and against either method 
of computing yields. 
