The Hard Red Winter Region

Hard red winter wheats in 1944 occupied an estimated 30,600,000 acres, about 47 percent of our total wheat acreage. In the central and southern Great Plains, where most of the hard red winter wheats are grown, stem-rust losses have been heavy in some years, and leaf rust, septoria, stinking smut, loose smut, and the hessian fly also have taken a heavy toll. The goal of plant breeders has been to overcome those plagues and to develop sorts that mature early enough to escape drought.

Tenmarq, the first early variety of satisfactory quality, was developed in the coordinated regional program and distributed from the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station in 1932. In 1944 it was grown more widely in the United States than any other variety of wheat. In then occupied 8,744,000 acres. Tenmarq is 2 or 3 days earlier than Turkey, the variety that had been grown by most farmers in the region for more than half a century. Its weight per bushel is low, but the milling and baking qualities of Tenmarq are excellent.

Cheyenne and Nebred, distributed in Nebraska in 1933 and 1938, have been popular in western Nebraska and the adjacent sections of Kansas and Colorado. Cheyenne is considered a good combine variety because of its stiff straw and erect heads. Nebred is resistant to stinking smut. Both are high-yielding varieties of satisfactory quality, but mature too late to be grown farther south.

Most hard red winter wheat is milled into flour for bread. Bakers want flour having certain characteristics of quality because they must be able to produce a uniform product month after month. Varieties differ markedly in characteristics that determine quality. During the past few years a considerable acreage of varieties that produce inferior flour for bread has been grown in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. These varieties, Chiefkan, Red Chief, and Early Blackhull, have some desirable characteristics from the farmer's standpoint; their test weights are 1 to 2 pounds heavier, and that often means a higher grade on the market. Bakers, however, have difficulty making satisfactory bread from flour that contains a high percentage of those varieties.

Four new varieties of satisfactory grain quality, Pawnee, Comanche, Wichita, and Westar, released to growers in 1943 and 1944, give promise of replacing the varieties of inferior quality. They are earlier and have higher test weights and stiffer straw than the popular Tenmarq, which is a parent of the first three varieties. Pawnee, Comanche, and Westar are about 3 days and Wichita 6 days earlier than Tenmarq. Pawnee is somewhat resistant to leaf and stem rust, loose smut, and hessian fly. Comanche resists stinking smut. Westar withstands leaf rust. Wichita often escapes damage from the rusts as well as drought because of its early maturity. Comanche was selected from an Oro X Tenmarq cross, Pawnee from a Kawvale X Tenmarq cross, and Wichita from an Early Black-hull X Tenmarq cross. While none of these varieties was grown on more than a few acres in 1943, it is estimated that Pawnee was grown on 1,500,000 acres, Comanche on 1,000,000 acres, Wichita on 200,000 acres, and Westar on 3,000 acres for the 1946 crop.

The Soft Winter Regions

Wheat is not a major crop in the East, although soft red winter varieties are grown there on some 12 million acres and soft white varieties on million acres annually. Wheat is needed in the rotation and it serves as cash crop. Wheat of these classes is used for making cake, pastry, cracker, biscuit, and similar flours, and prepared breakfast cereals, and the desired quality characteristics are entirely different from those for the hard wheats. The major production hazards have been the leaf rust, loose smut, septoria, scab diseases, the hessian fly, and winterkilling. Resistance to lodging and short straw are important because much of the wheat is sown as a companion crop with seedings of legumes and grasses.

Thorne, the leading soft red winter variety, was grown on more than a million and a half acres in 1944, about three-fourths of it in Ohio. Thorne was developed by the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station and was distributed in 1937. Its high yields, short, stiff straw, and resistance to loose smut make it popular with farmers, even though its weight per bushel is low.

Fairfield, distributed in Indiana in 1942, is winter hardy, resistant to loose smut and lodging, and is moderately resistant to leaf rust. It has soft grain of good quality. Prairie, distributed in Illinois in 1943, is a bearded winter-hardy variety with moderate resistance to leaf rust. It promises to become an important variety in central Illinois, where soft wheat varieties previously available have been subject to winterkilling. Blackhawk, distributed in Wisconsin in 1944, is one of the most winter-hardy soft wheat varieties adapted for commercial growing. It is resistant to stem rust, leaf rust, and stinking smut, but is probably too late in maturity for growing except in Wisconsin and northern Illinois.

Hardired and Sanford, distributed in South Carolina and Georgia, respectively, in 1940, are moderately resistant to leaf rust. Both are becoming popular varieties in the South, where they are replacing Purplestraw, a leading variety for more than a century. The development of leaf-rust-resistant varieties adapted to the Southeast should aid in the shift from soil-depleting row crops, such as cotton and corn, to the soil-protecting legumes, grasses, and small grains.

Austin, which resists stem and leaf rust and loose smut, was released in Texas in 1943 and was grown on an estimated million acres for the 1946 crop. Plant breeders are watching with interest to see whether growing this variety in central and south Texas will have an effect on the development of rust epidemics in wheat-growing areas to the north. We expect that the use of resistant varieties in Texas will eliminate a source of overwintering rust spores that start the northward movement of rust in the spring and, if weather conditions are right, build up into the major epidemics farther north.

Yorkwin, a variety of white winter wheat distributed in New York in 1936, is now the leader in its class in New York and Michigan. The acreage of Cornell 595, a still newer variety of this class, is increasing rapidly. Both varieties are high yielding with stiff straw and resistance to loose smut.