CLASSIFICATION OF AMERICAN WHEAT VARIETIES. 183 
from a friend in England, who had obtained a very small quantity from an im- 
portation made into that country from Argentina. The \Yheat was first grown 
on the San Juan Islands, in Washington, by Mr. Towell, and by 1916 he had 
about 100 acres. J. C. Hawkins, then a student at the Oregon Agricultural 
College, contracted to sell the wheat in 1916 for seed at $1 a pound. He gave 
it the name Titanic, because of the marine disaster which occurred during the 
year the variety was introduced, Mr. Towell. the introducer, being one of the 
surviving passengers on the vessel. 
Distribution. — Grown to a very small extent in the Puget Sound section of 
Washington. 
WINTER ALASKA. 
Description. — Plant winter habit, late, midtall ; stem white, midstrong, stout ; 
spike branched, awned, nodding ; glumes pubescent, bro^vn, short, narrow ; 
shoulders narrow, usually oblique ; beaks 1 to 2 mm. long ; awns black, usually 
deciduous; awns 3 to 10 cm. long; kernels red, small to midsized, hard, often 
becoming starchy, ovate ; germ midsized ; crease midwide, shallow ; cheeks angu- 
lar ; brush midsized, short. 
This variety differs from Titanic in having red kernels. 
History. — Winter Alaska was obtained from the Washington Agricultural 
Experiment Station, Pullman, Wash., in 1917. It was grown by that station for 
several years previous, but its previous history could not be traced. 
Distribution. — Grown in experiments at experiment stations in Washington 
and commercially to a small extent in the vicinity of Puyallup, Pierce County, 
Wash. 
DURUM WHEAT. 
The plants of durum wheat usually are of spring habit and tall. 
The peduncle is pithy, at least in the upper portion. The spikes are 
compact and laterally compressed, and hence are narrower when seen 
in a face view. The glumes are persistent, sharply keeled, and the 
lemmas always awned except in a few awnless forms recently origi- 
nated by hybridization. The awns are long and coarse and are 
white, 3^eIlow, brown, or black. The kernels are white or red and 
usually rather long and pointed ; they are very hard and translucent, 
making the white-kerneled forms appear amber-colored. The ker- 
nels always have a short brush and angular cheeks and are the hard- 
est of all known wheats. 
The durum wheats, as before stated, are sometimes very similar to 
certain poulard varieties. The spikes, however, usually are much 
thinner, the glumes are longer, and the kernels are longer, more 
slender, and usually much harder. 
Durum wheat has been widely grown in the United States only 
during the past 20 years. Most of the varieties were introduced from 
southern Russia and the Mediterranean region, where these wheats 
principally are grown. Certain introductions, including Kubanka, 
made by the Department of Agriculture about 1900, became popular 
with farmers in the northern Great Plains and Prairie sections and 
the production rapidly increased. The distribution of durum wdieat 
