2 BULLETIN 357, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
wonderful productiveness claimed for the branched heads of the 
so-called Alaska wheat. Always, however, the yields are said to 
be enormous. Sometimes the same variety is exploited again and 
again under a new name and with a new and wonderful story. 1 
The present paper deals with two misrepresented varieties of 
wheat. They have had very interesting and varied histories in past 
years. This bulletin tells what they really are, gives the story of 
their origin, quotes the claims made for them, and states what they 
may reasonably be expected to do under average conditions. 
Active efforts to promote the sale of these wheats are still being 
made and many farmers are being misled into purchasing them be- 
cause of the plausible statements made by the promoters. The United 
States Department of Agriculture and the State agricultural experi- 
ment stations endeavor to keep informed concerning all such exploi- 
tations and to warn their constituents of the danger. The present 
paper is the result of this endeavor. 
ALASKA WHEAT. 
The so-called Alaska wheat is merely a very old variety under 
a new name. Attempts to promote it under one or another of its 
many names have been numerous and persistent for more than a 
hundred years. There is evidence that these exploitations usually 
have been profitable to promoters and expensive to purchasers. In 
order that the reader may know definitely some of the ways in which 
it has been promoted its history is given rather fully. Quotations 
from early American writers show former exploitations, while the 
most recent one is fully discussed. These instances should serve to 
put readers on guard against future exploitations. This wheat has 
never been proved to have value anywhere in the United States. 
DESCRIPTION OF ALASKA WHEAT. 
The variety recently exploited under the name Alaska wheat 
belongs to the poulard subspecies of wheat. Botanically, the poulard 
wheats are known as Triticwm turgidum or Triticam aestivum 
turgidum. They are somewhat intermediate between the common and 
the durum wheats. All of them are bearded, and the beards are more 
or less intermediate in their length and color between those of com- 
mon wheat and those of durum wheat. They have the peculiarly 
flattened heads, the broad chaff, and the amber kernels of the durums. 
The chaff, however, is rather thin and papery, and the kernels are 
shorter, softer, and more humpbacked than those of durum wheat. 
These wheats are not grown commercially anywhere in this coun- 
try, and the relationships of the different varieties are not well known. 
1 See Ball, C. R. " Three much-misrepresented sorghums," U. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. riant 
Indus. Cir. 50, 14 p., 2 fig. 1910. 
