George Stewart

The Varieties of Small Grains and the Market Classes of Wheat in Utah 1

In the summer of 1918 an attempt was made to learn ~vhich varieties of small grains were being grown by the farmers of Utah. This study consisted of two parts (I) a field survey in which wheat, oat, and barley fields were visited and the variety determined, and (2) the collection of samples of these grains from all available local sources. These samples were grown on the college farm at Logan, Utah, together with 91 lots of oats grown by the writer at Cornell University in 1917, the identification of which Montgomery 2 r~ported last year. These oats and 34 samples collected in Utah and southern Idaho were planted for the purpose of classification and also to assist in a study of Etheridge’s key. As the classification work is not completed, it is not now reported. The survey, though incomplete, was carried far enough to give some interesting data. Oats were classified according.to .]Etheridge’s key,3barley according to I-Iarlan’s key,~ and wheat, so far as possible; in accordance with the yet unpublished classification of Ball and Clark. Lack of even a tentative key made it impossible to be sure of all th6 varieties of wheat. A variety locally called Touse caused particular trouble, as this name occurs in Utah attached to Bluestem, Defiance, New Zealand, and to another variety the true name of which has not up to date been ascertained. Table I shows the results of the survey by counties. It should be mentioned that the field survey was made too late to obtain samples from the dry-farm fields in some sections. Two-thirds of the dryfarm wheat in Utah is Turkey. The tables do not therefore show as high a percentage of .Turkey as is actually grown.