CLASSIFICATION OF AMERICAN WHEAT VARIETIES. 141 
rust. It thrashes very easilj'. It should be cut rather early, as it is liable to 
shell if left till fully ripe. The quality of the flour is equal to any other spring 
wheat. It is said to yield from 15 to 40 bushes per acre. 
China Tea \Yheat was listed in 1863, in a report of the standing committee of 
the Iowa Agricultural Society, as the first spring-wheat variety preferred by 
growers {^, p. 518). This fact, together with the identity of the samples grown 
by the writers and the importance of Java in Iowa, indicates that Java is sim- 
ply a new name for the China Tea variety. China Tea was reported from New 
York in 1919. 
In 1899 Wallaces' Farmer, of Des Moines, Iowa, published several short arti- 
cles on the desirability of growing early varieties of wheat and oats. A request 
was made to their readers to report any variety of spring wheat that was 
grown which would ripen in Iowa by the Fourth of Julj'. Among several of the 
varieties that were reported was the Early Java, from C. F. Morton, south- 
eastern Nebraska {26). As a result of this request. Early 
Java wheat was grown in 1900 at the Iowa Agricultural 
Experiment Station, Ames, Iowa, and on the farm of 
M. E. Ashby, living 5 miles north of Des Moines. For 
several years Wallaces' Farmer entered into an active 
campaign for the distribution of Early Java wheat. The 
variety thus became quite widely grown in that State. 
In a recent issue of Wallaces' Farmer the following ref- 
erence concerning the origin of the variety is given {33) : ^^^- 56.— Outlme map 
*u ^ on X, ^ ^^ , , °^ *^6 north-central 
About 20 years ago a southeastern Tvebraska^ farmer United States show- 
was growing an early variety of spring wheat under the ing the distrihution of 
name of Early Iowa or Early Java. He wrote to Henry java wheat in 1919 
Wallace, of Wallaces' Farmer, about it in 1899, and as Estimated area 55 - 
a result Mr. Wallace wrote about it considerably in the coo acres 
paper and induced a number of Iowa farmers to try it 
out. In a short time the Early Java became the most popular spring wheat in 
Iowa. No one knew where it came from originally. . . . 
Early Java may be a misspelling of •' Early Jowa," the German spelling of 
Early Iowa, given above as a synonym. This possibly is an explanation of the 
origin of the name Early Java. 
Distribufion. — Grown in Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and Wisconsin, and as 
China Tea in New^ York. (Fig. 56.) 
Synonyms.— Black Tea, China Tea, Early Iowa, Siberian, Swedish, and Tea 
Leaf. Swedish is a name under which samples of Java have been received 
from Nebraska. It is evidently a local name for Java wheat in that State. 
Tea Leaf was reported for Java from Iowa. The other synonyms listed above 
have been mentioned in the history of Java. 
EEIVAN. 
Description. — Plant spring habit, early, short; stem white, slender, very 
weak; spike awned, fusiform, middense, nodding; glumes glabrous, white, 
midlong, narrow; shoulders midwide, usually elevated; beaks 3 to 25 mm. long; 
awns 2 to 7 cm. long; kernels red, midlong, soft, elliptical, humped; germ 
small ; crease midwide, shallow ; cheeks usually angular ; brush small, midlong. 
Erivan differs from Java chiefly in having an elevated shoulder on the glume. 
History.— The Erivan variety (S. P. I. No. 9871) was introduced by the 
United States Department of Agriculture {197) in 1903, from the dry moun- 
tain district of the Erivan Government in Transcaucasian Russia, near the 
border of Persia, 
