8 BULLETIN 1309, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
RATES AND DATES OF SEEDING 
The seeding rates and dates are shown in Table 5. Seeding earlier 
than the dates shown in this table is not believed to be so satisfactory, 
but wheat and rye may be sown as late as October 30 and still produce 
good crops. 
EXPERIMENTAL DATA 
WINTER WHEAT 
Experiments with winter wheat reported here include a varietal 
experiment beginning in 1910 in which 54 varieties or selections have 
been grown for three or more years and a rate-of-seeding experi- 
ment conducted from 1913 to 1923, inclusive. 
VARIETAL EXPERIMENTS 
The annual and comparable average yields of the varieties or 
selections of winter wheat grown in the varietal experiments are 
shown in Table 6. During the 14-year period, 1910-1923, inclusive, 14 
varieties have been grown continuously. New varieties are added to 
the list annually, and this necessitates the discarding of many of those 
showing little promise of high yield or other good qualities. Varieties 
grown for three years or less and discarded before 1915 are not 
included in Table 6. Yields of these varieties were reported in 
Department Bulletin No. 336. 6 
Winter wheat has produced fair to good yields in each of the 14 
years from 1910 to 1923, inclusive. An exceptionally high yield was 
obtained in 1917 and an unusually low one in 1921. Spring freezes 
shortly before heading time may have been a factor in reducing the 
yield in 1921, as 10 per cent of the spikes were found to be sterile 
in plats of Purplestraw wheat (C. I. No. 1915). Unusually high tem- 
peratures in March and April resulted in extremely early heading 
in that year. 
As shown in Table 6, Purplestraw (C. I. No. 1915) has produced 
the highest average yield in the 14-year period, 31.9 bushels. A 
selection (C. I. No. 1733) here named Potomac, ranks second, fol- 
lowed by Purplestraw (C. I. No. 1957), Poole (C. I. No. 1979), and 
Fultz (C. I. No. 1923). The 6-year average yields (1918-1923) per- 
mit a comparison of 28 varieties and strains. Poole (C. I. No. 1979), 
Purplestraw (C. I. No. 1957), and Shepherd (C. I. 6163) are the 
leading varieties in this period. Descriptions and histories of the 
two new varieties, Potomac and Shepherd, are here given. 
Description of Potomac. — -Plant winter habit, midseason, midtall; stem purple, 
midstrong; spike awnless, fusiform, middense to lax, inclined to nodding; glumes 
glabrous, brown, midlong, midwide; shoulder midwide, oblique to square; beaks 
wide, obtuse, 0.5 millimeter long; apical awns several, 3 to 15 millimeters long; 
kernels red, midlong, soft, ovate to oval; germ small to midsize; crease midwide, 
shallow to middeep; cheeks usually rounded; brush small to midsize, midlong. 
History of Potomac. — The seed from which Potomac was developed was 
obtained originally from Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y., in 1900, under the 
name Dawson Golden Chaff. Its identity as a white-kerneled variety appears 
to have been lost, at least by 1914, either through mass selection or otherwise. 
It has been grown in plats since 1910 at the Arlington Experiment Farm, where 
it has been one of the best-yielding varieties. 
« See footnote 2, p. 1. 
