IMPROVEMENT OF GHIRKA SPRING WHEAT. 3 
There is a variety known as Ghirka Winter (C. I. No. 1438), which 
apparently differs from Ghirka Spring only in the winter habit and in 
having a shorter, stouter spike. 
EXPERIMENTS. 
This paper contains the results of experiments with only one of the 
department's introductions, Ghirka Spring (C. I. No. 1517) from 
Grodno Province in Russian Poland. 
The experimental data are discussed under three separate topics, 
yield, quality, and improvement. The yield of the original unse- 
lected Ghirka Spring wheat is compared with that of three standard 
varieties at a series of seven stations during a period of seven years. 
The milling and baking qualities also are compared with those of the 
same three standard varieties grown at the Dickinson (N. Dak.) sub- 
station during three different years. Finally, the progress being 
made in improving both yield and quality by pure-line selection is 
shown. 
COMPARATIVE YIELDS. 
Ghirka Spring wheat has been tested in comparison with other 
domestic and foreign wheats at several agricultural experiment sta- 
tions in the Great Plains area. Some of these tests have been con- 
ducted by the State stations, some by the United States Department 
of Agriculture, and some by the two in cooperation. 
At the time this wheat was included in the varietal tests at the 
experiment stations in the northern part of the Great Plains, Blue- 
stem and Fife were the standard wheats grown in that district, while 
durum wheat was becoming better known and its acreage increasing. 
The experiment stations were testing several varieties and strains of 
Fife and Bluestem wheats and many new varieties of durum wheat 
which were then being imported. The object of these varietal experi- 
ments was to determine which group of wheat was best adapted to 
each locality. 
The work at the start was considered a local problem. The varie- 
tal tests at each station were practically independent of those at any 
other. As the work progressed, the best adapted groups and varie- 
ties became more and more evident at each testing station. When 
the results from all the stations in one part of this area are compared 
only group adaptations usually are shown. The best variety in each 
group has been not always the same at all stations. In some cases 
the variety leading at one station has not been grown at some of the 
other stations or, if grown, has been discarded if the yields were not 
satisfactory. For these reasons it is difficult to compare the results 
from individual varieties at a group of stations. It is possible, how- 
ever, to present yields of Ghirka Spring wheat (C. I. No. 1517) from 
seven experiment stations in the northern Great Plains during the 
