THE WHEAT DISTRICTS The soft wheat district is along our North Atlantic coast. The semi-hard district is south of the Great Lakes. Hard spring wheat culture centres in the Red River Valley. Kansas is the centre of the hard winter wheat district. The durum wheat area centres in northern Texas. White wheat grows on the Pacific coast. Red wheat grows from Kansas to the Red River Valley. White wheats are starchy. Wheats rich in gluten make the best bread. Such are the varieties grown on the northern and central plains of the United States, Canada, southern Argentina, and eastern and southern Russia. Macaroni wheat, rich in gluten, grows in the Mediterranean countries. Durum wheat grows well on alkali soils, and in semi-arid regions. It is a sturdy new group of drought-resistant, rust-resistant varieties, that has made wheat-growing possible in regions where, a few years ago, no known varieties would have any chance at all. Our millers are learning
to mix it with other kinds in flour. It is a fine macaroni wheat.
Strength of the straw of some wheats make it a valuable by-product of the harvest. Leghorn hats are woven of the wiry stems of an Italian wheat, a Tuscan, bearded variety. Roofs are thatched, chairs seated, mattresses stuffed, bee hives and baskets woven of wheat straw. It is a good fodder for cattle, green or dry. Twisted into hard ropes it often furnishes fuel for the engines that run the great harvesters. Pressed into bales, and these built into temporary walls, the straw often holds thousands of bushels of wheat in storage until time for shipment comes. Used as bedding in stables, straw finally returns to the soil with the stable manure, adding vegetable fibre that loosens heavy clay, and makes of it good loam for the growing of wheat.