524 
Medicago rutnenica is not much of a success at Krassny 
Koot. It remains too low and is of semi ^prostrate habits. 
Medicago cancellata had been received this spring from 
Mr. von Arapow, but only one plant had come up and that fellow 
looked suspiciously like Cytlsus biflorus, which is very 
common throughout the south Volga regions. 
Mr. Bogdan had recently gotten a wheat specialist as as- 
sistant and from the last I heard, the climate around Krassny 
Koot is suited to a small number of wheats only. The short 
durum grained wheats, with the bracts close together, thrive 
best of all. The famous select Svalof wheats were hopeless 
failures, but some varieties from hot and dry Turkestan did 
well, like for instance a biscuit wheat from Khiva, Trlticum 
aestivum graecum, "Khivinka" , of which I obtained a small 
sample. Bjela Turka wheat, one of the standard durum wheats 
of south Russia, is not altogether fixed; it breaks up in 7 
or 8 different strains there in Krassny Koot. This assistant 
said that for localities like Krassny Koot people had to breed 
their own races of wheat and to be very careful in importing 
seed from other localities, as the Imported wheats nearly 
always degenerated the first year and that now especially the 
whole of southeastern Russia was in a sorry plight, because 
the crops had been hopeless failures this year and on many 
places there was not even grain enough left, so the farmers 
were already importing wheats that are not suited to local 
conditions. What they are trying to obtain especially in 
southeastern Russia are races of perfectly hardy winter wheats 
and next to that, varieties that need less moisture or less 
time to ripen. The selection work was too recently started to 
show any results but the first indications are very promising; 
one wheat of which the type produced 13 poods to the 
desiatine, gave 41 poods this summer." 
