ent more valuable than oats for feeding horses, and that
for stock fattening it is equal to corn, pound for pound. It is the
most drouth-resistant and prolific of small grains, has been
successfully raised from Montana to Mexico, and is being planted in
Louisiana to replace oats because it is not affected by rust.

Some of the yields recorded are enormous, varying from 40 to 104
bushels per acre under dry farming, and as high as 152 bushels under
irrigation.

One stalk of Turkey red wheat was noticed as differing in many ways
from all varieties, principally that the head was over eight inches
in length, whereas the ordinary Turkey red wheat commonly used in
the West has a head of only four or five inches.

From this one stalk has been developed the Buffum No. 17 Winter
wheat. The heavy beards were eliminated and the grains or kernels in
each spikelet increased from the normal number of three to five,
seven, and even nine. The hardiness of the new variety, together
with its remarkably large head, means that when it is placed on the
market the farmers who sow it need not fear winter killing and will
have a splendid flouring grain, which will produce nearly double the
average crop per acre.

It is said that if a single kernel could be added to each head of
wheat, the increase in annual production of this country would
amount to over fifteen million bushels.

If fodder crops can be substituted for a part of the corn now used
for stock, it will be a great gain.

In his alfalfa-breeding garden, Professor Buffum is raising over
seventy different kinds, gathered from all parts of the world,
showing that the plant is capable of wide variations. One hybrid has
been obtained by crossing sweet clover with alfalfa; the clover
grows wild in every state in the Union.

There seems to be no limit to man's ingenuity and skill in plant
improvement. Perhaps sometime we will try it with our children.

In thirty years an exceptional ear of dent corn, through continued
planting and careful selection each succeeding season, resulted in a
few days' shortening of the growing period and an increased
resistance to the cool nights of the higher elevation where it was
under improvement; to-day, this corn matures about the middle of
August at an altitude of 4000 feet, and has been yielding forty to
sixty bushels per acre.

CHAPTER XXV

DRIED TRUCK

As a war measure the surplus vegetables in many city markets have
been forced b