America's Crop Heritage


 Three important varieties of Australian wheat adapted to the
United States were brought in between 1914 and 1916. The
Florence, obtained in 1914, and distributed to experiment sta-
tions in the western states, was grown on 150,000 acres in 1939,
but its greatest contribution was as a parent of several new
varieties. (1) The Federation, a spring wheat produced by the
famous Australian wheat breeder, William Farrer, and brought
to the United States in 1914, showed promise as early as 1916
at the Sherman Branch Experiment Station in Oregon. By 1944,
694,000 acres of Federation were grown in the West. The White
Federation from Victoria in 1916 was first grown at the Sherman
Branch Experiment Station. Because of its high yields, seed
were grown in 1918 at Chico for distribution. By 1944, 244,000
acres of the White Federation were being grown, and several
lesser varieties imported at the same time are still cultivated.

 BARLEY
 About 1900 the Department of Agriculture began a search for
pure strains of barleys suited to the exact and elusive require-
ments of the brewing industry. American barleys were badly
mixed and too nitrogenous and were not starchy enough for
brewing. Two-rowed barleys were secured from Europe in 1901,
as well as the European Chevalier barley and the Beldi from
Algeria. Club Mariot from Egypt and the Hancheen from
Sweden were brought in two years later. These last four varieties
were planted to a combined 500,000 acres in 1927. Two thousand
pounds of the Hanna barley, a famous pedigreed variety from
Moravia, were obtained in 1904.
 In 1905 the Trebi barley from Trebizond, Turkey, came to
the Bureau of Entomology in a bulk lot of seed ordered through
the Office of Seed and Plant Introduction. Trebi was widely
grown in 1945 in the Northwest from a selection made by
Harlan in 1909 in cooperative breeding work with the Minnesota
Agricultural Experiment Station. On an exploring trip in 1923,
Harlan secured thirty lots of barley in India, nineteen in Spain,
Tunis, and Algeria, thirty-two in Egypt, and thirty-three in
Abyssinia.
 RICE
 Other rices were obtained after Knapp's successful importa-
tions of the Japanese Kiushu. Forty-one varieties, mostly from