172 BULLETIN 1074, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTURE. 
Distril)ution. — Several varieties are grown under the name of Velvet Chaff. 
Winter wheat of this description was sparingly reported as Velvet Chaff 
from Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois. Indiana, Kentucliy, Louisiana, 
Maryland, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. 
Synonyms. — Japanese Velvet Chaff and Velvet Chaff. Japanese Velvet Chaff 
is the name under which a wheat identical with Penquite was obtained by the 
United States Department of Agriculture at the Paris Exposition, held in 
France, in 1900. It has been grown in experiments in Virginia and Maryland, 
but is not known to be commercially grown. 
Velvet Chaff is the name under which Penquite (Penquite's Velvet Chaff) has 
been best known in Ohio since about 1880. Although the name Velvet Chaff 
has become generally used for the variety, it is also confused with, and used 
for, other varieties, and for these reasons the name Penquite is here adopted. 
CLUB WHEAT. 
The plants of club wheat may be either winter or spring habit, and 
either tall or short. The straw is stiff and strong. The spikes usually 
are awnless but may be awned, are 
oblong or sometimes clavate or 
" club shaped," short, usually less 
than 2J inches in length, very com- 
pact, and laterally compressed. 
The spikelets usually contain five 
fertile florets and spread at nearly 
a right angle to the rachis. The 
glumes and lemmas are persistent, 
so the grain does not shatter when 
ripe. The kernels of club wheat 
are small, laterally compressed or 
" pinched," because of crowding in 
Fig. 68. — Outline map of the western the COmpact SpikcS. Most club- 
United States, showing the distribu- i x i i i, n i j. 
tion of club wheats in 1919. Estimated ^^i^eat kernels have a small, short 
area, 1,020,300 acres. brush and a uarrow, very shal- 
low crease. The grain usually is of rather poor quality for bread 
making. 
The club wheats are distinguished from common wheats by the 
smaller, shorter, denser, laterally compressed spikes. The varieties 
of wheat groAvn in the eastern United States often referred to as club 
because of having clavate spikes do not belong to this species, but are 
common wheats. 
The nonshattering and stiff-strawed characters of club wheats are 
of much economic importance in the Pacific Coast area, where they 
are principally grown, because in that area wheat commonly is cut 
and thrashed in one operation with a combined harvester long after 
the grain is fully ripe. Figure 68 shows the distribution of club 
wheats in the United States in 1919. 
