20 MARKETING
texture, go to determine the five commercial classes of wheat, as
described below. 1
Hard Red Spring wheat is grown principally in an area centering in
the Dakotas and running northwesterly into Canada; with a smaller
secondary area lying along the Washington-Idaho border. This class of
wheat comprises nearly one-fourth of the total wheat acreage. It is used
in making the highest grade yeast-bread flours, and for this reason the
commercial supply is almost entirely ground in the United States. .
Durum wheat, which is a hard spring wheat of peculiar texture, is
grown in almost the same area as Hard Red Spring wheat, and is produced
most heavily in the district just west of the Red River Valley in North
Dakota. About one-sixteenth of the total wheat acreage has usually been
sown in Durum. It is customarily ground into a granular flour called
semolina, from which macaroni, spaghetti, vermicelli, and other edible
pastes are manufactured.
Hard Red Winter wheat is grown principally in an area extending
through southern Nebraska, Kansas, and western Oklahoma. The original
seed was probably brought from the Russian Crimea by immigrants.
Hard Red Winter wheat comprises about one-third of the total wheat
acreage. Like the Hard Red Spring varieties, it is used chiefly in the
manufacture of yeast-bread flour.
Soft Red Winter wheat is grown largely in the eastern half of the
United States, where there is relatively greater humidity. It comprises
over 30 per cent of the total wheat acreage; almost as much as Hard
Red Winter. It is used in the manufacture of both yeast-bread and pastry
flours. Frequently hard wheat flour is blended with flour of this class to
make it a stronger bread flour. As will be shown in the next chapter, each
individual brand of flour is usually the result of a blend of several kinds of
wheat. In the practice of the larger mills the blend is often determined
by chemical analysis.
The so-called White wheats are less important in the commercial move
ment than the classes already described. Common white wheat is grown
in the far West and to a lesser extent along the Great Lakes. It comprises
somewhat more than 5 per cent of the total wheat acreage. Pastry flours
and breakfast foods and to some extent bread-making flours are made
from Common White wheat. White Club is grown only in the far West
and comprises less than 2 per cent of the total wheat acreage. It is used
in making starchy flours for pastry.
It will be understood that each of the above classes includes a
great many different varieties of plant with corresponding differ-
1 Yearbook of the Dept, of Agriculture, 1921, pp. 122-126. See also the dis
cussion of the Official Wheat Standards in the text, p. 38.