State Convention—What Wheat to Raise. 345 
Colonel Warner: Wliafc is your experience about it standing- 
after it gets ripe? 
Mr. Sherman : I never saw it crinkle. 
Mr. Wood: I procured a sample ot wheat which came to my no¬ 
tice under the name of Bismarck wheat, and as Bismarck and Prussia 
are pretty much one in these latter days, it strikes me whether it 
might not be the same variety. It grew very finely, and when 
it fully ripened or matured I was not able, by any method, to- 
designate it from Fife wheat which I procured in Minnesota. I 
gave up it’s being a distinct variety; I said it was Fife. 
Mr. Allen: There is a variety of wheat raised by a neighbor of 
mine he claims is a great producer. I have examined it but cannot 
discover any difference between that and my Fife. In my opinion, 
it is simply an invigorated Fife wheat. 
Mr. Palmer: This wheat spoken of here, Mr. Judkins brought 
from the State of Maine. I presume it might have been Fife some 
one had taken down there. I also found there, last winter, a wheat 
they called the Lost Nation, and they were very successful with it. 
They have it all over the State; It looked to me like our club. I 
understand they have it in Iowa. 
Mr. Sherman: I must take issue with the gentleman that this 
is not a Fife wheat. It is nothing like it. I remember well when 
Fife wheat was first introduced in Wisconsin. It was so hard and 
flinty that the chamber of commerce, in Milwaukee, passed resolu¬ 
tions to discourage the farmers from raising it because it was not 
salable. This wheat, the millers say, is a soft wheat. It appears 
to be a lighter color than the Fife. 
Colonel Warner: I see but little difference in the color of the 
berry. It is nearer like the Fife than the Rio Grande in shape and 
general appearance. 
Mr. Wood: It would be a lighter color if it is soft. A light- 
color and softness go together. 
Mr. Sherman: It is larger, stiffer, and longer-headed. The wheat 
seems to be soft. It seems to make very good flour. 
Mr. Whiting: I would like to inquire if that variety could be 
procured and revived, why wouldn’t the old-fashioned hedge-row 
wheat be valuable for patent flour. It was certainly a very hard 
wheat and very hardy until it became sickly from some causes un¬ 
known. It was a very productive wheat. It was supplanted by 
