Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1908-10-16
ALASKA WHEAT.
idaho Experiment Station Man Writes
Concerning It.

qulIlCS COlIllliS ihlO OuI oldllOllJ VIC
find it necessary to issue this press
bulletin concerning the so-called
alaska" wheat.
This wheat, when given ample field
space or conditions favorable to the
individual plant, has branching head
borne on rather tough straw at a
height OF between four and five feet.
The mesh bears two and three ker-
nels. When grown under close field
conditions the head tends to be much
smaller, branches less, and the mesh
bears from one to two kernels, very
seldom three If heads grown under
these conditions alone were examined
the impression would be obtained that
this wheat never bears but two ker-
nels to the mesh, a mistake which
some writers appear to have made.
The boards, while not numerous,
are dark in color and considerably
stronger than we find on our common
wheats, but not so long or stiff as
those found on the durums or maca-
roni wheats. The normal kernel is
light in color, short and plump, with
an unusually open groove, which al
lows the kernel to be easily broken
in threshing A cross-section shows
the interior to be white and powdery,
with comparatively little horny starch.
The shrunken kernels naturally are
harder
Taking everything into considera
ton, | am led to conclude that this
is the Egyptian or Miracle wheat, a
Poulard, and that it belongs to that
variety of the Egyptian known as
Eldorado, which is very closely re-
lated to the seven-headed variety.
The Poulards are peculiarly adapted
to dry regions, but never have been
grown to any extent in America.
| Their yields have never proved to be
| of such a nature as to warrant their
extensive growth, even for stock food.
And the inferiority OF the flour pro-
| duced from them has prevented their
use to any extent for the production
of bread.
The high yields claimed for the
wheat in this section of the country,
in some cases 277 bushels per acre,
are fabulous. One of the promoters
states that from one head OF the
wheat he obtained seven pounds:
from these seven pounds he produced
1545 pounds. or yield in round num-
| bers of 22O fold 1t is from these
| figures that the yields noted in the
various papers, and in the circular OF
the Adams Hobe Seed Grain COM
pany, of Juliaetta, Idaho, are COM
puted To show the righteousness Of
computing yields in this way, we de-
termined in a couple of cases, the
number OF grains produced from one
seed of Little Club grown under fa-
vorable conditions in our breeding
plat One plant produced 1176; the
other 1900 kernels. Now, reasoning
as this seed company has done, if we
should plant one bushel Of this Little
Club to the acre, we would obtain
1176 or 1900 bushels. This would be
a rather high yield, even for Idaho.
This year the company had 700
acres in the wheat grown on different
farms in this locality. A thirty-acre
tract near Moscow, which was
threshed in the middle of August,
went about thirty-two bushels per
acre. Mr. Adams stated at that time
that his best yields had been thirty
five bushels. He supplemented this
! remark. however, with the statement
that his stands were poor in every
case. But considering the large acre
age, the fact that several different
farmers grew the crop, and the effect
of a close stand, noted above, we must
take this as an indication, at least, Of
the yielding power Of the wheat. This.
however, would not be considered an
extra large yield for this country.
The analysis of the wheat upon
! which the company appears to base
its hopes amounts to practically moth
ing iii determining the bread-making
quality of the flour, 1t is true. that
bluestem wheat, which analyzes higher
in protein than Little Club, makes a
better quality of flour, but it is also
true that macaroni wheat, which an
alyzes higher in protein than Blue
stem, makes a lower class of flour,
and consequently is Disseminated
against by the miller. The low-grade
flours turned out from our mills usu-
| any SHOW nlSner protein content
than the patent Corn has consider
able protein, but the chemist seems
unable to find any gluten Chat all es-
sential part of good flour. Even
if the chemist had found a high gluten
content in Alaska wheat, we would
still not be justified in concluding
that the wheat would make a good
qualit5' of flour The proof of the
wheat is in the bread it will make
promised to have a milling test mad.
Upon our request the company ha,
soon. Until this test is made, how
ever, we must assume that the wheat
will make no better flour under the
name of Alaska" than it did when
known as wheat OF Miracle"
In spite of all the beautiful stories
which have been written concerning