ALASKA AND STONER, OR ' MIRACLE, ' WHEATS. 15 
The name Miracle is undesirable, so the Department of Agriculture 
has named this variety Stoner, after the man who first grew it. 
Other names that have been applied to it are Eden, Forty-to-One, 
and Marvelous. This is not the only wheat variety that has been 
called by the name Miracle. Curiously enough, that name has been 
applied also many times during the last century to the Alaska wheat. 
DESCRIPTION OF STONER, OR "MIRACLE," WHEAT. 
The wheat here discussed is a variety belonging to the soft red 
winter wheats. This is the class of wheat commonly grown in the 
eastern United States from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi River 
and beyond. The Stoner wheat has bearded heads (fig. 4), white, 
hairless chaff, and a medium-sized, rather soft, red kernel. This 
shows it to belong in the group with Bearded Purple Straw (fig. 5) 
and Fulcaster (fig. 6), both well-known varieties in the Middle At- 
lantic States. It grows from 3^ to 4| feet tall, according to soil and 
season. It ripens at about the same time as these two varieties which 
it so closely resembles. Heads of all three varieties are shown in 
figures 4, 5, and 6. The Stoner (Miracle) wheat is a pure strain; 
that is, it is descended from a single jilant. 
• HISTORY OF STONER, OR "MIRACLE," WHEAT. 
The strain of wheat now known as Stoner originated on the farm 
of Mr. K. B. Stoner, of Fincastle, near Roanoke, Ya. It was first 
brought to the attention of the United States Department of Agricul- 
ture through a letter from Mr. Stoner, 1 dated June 8, 1906. 
In the spring of 1904 Mr. Stoner noticed a large bunch of grass 
in his garden ; when headed it proved to be wheat. It had 142 stems, 
or tillers, and he became impressed with the idea that it was a very 
wonderful wheat. Just how the kernel of wheat became sown in 
the garden or from just what variety it came, Mr. Stoner does not 
know. The Fulcaster variety is commonly grown in that section 
of Virginia, however, and the Bearded Purple Straw less commonly. 
It is reasonable to suppose, therefore, that the Stoner wheat is a 
pure line from one of these varieties, which it so closely resembles. 
Mr. Stoner saved the seed and increased it during the two years 
1905 and 1906, as shown in his letter. He stated that while he could 
have his wheat grown at Fincastle on shares, he receiving two-thirds, 
1 In the year 1004 there originated with me a plant of wheat, producing more than a 
thousandfold. The product of this single grain twice sown (in the years 1004 and 1005) 
will this harvest (1006), we think, yield sufficient to sow much more than 100 acres. 
The yield (I suppose) is unprecedented in this or any other country, and for that reason 
difficult of belief. Possibly, this wheat may enable us to successfully compete with the 
Canadian yield ; surely so, if we can grow 2 bushels to their 1. 
The drought injured wheat here, but I have single grains showing a thousandfold, and 
some near twice that. I think the wheat capable of exceeding 100 bushels to the acre, 
and think experiments made show that not more than a half bushel should be sown to 
the acre. The mistake so far has been oversowing. 
