Jones Fife Winter Wheat

(Triticum aestivum); Heritage - Centennial; Soft Red Winter; a New York State Connection cultivar; Fall-planted; Minimum 50 seeds

Jones Fife Wheat is a soft red winter wheat cultivar developed in 1889 by A.N. Jones, a farmer breeder in Newark, Wayne County New York. It is a composite cross between Fultz, Mediterranean, and Russian Velvet.

A bit about A.N. Jones - A farmer living in Newark, Wayne County New York until about 1890 when he moved to Leroy, Genesee County, Mr. Jones has the distinction of creating at least 15 cultivars from hybridization, the process of selection from progeny of artificial crosses, that were then under commercial production between 1886 and 1906. One of the first to practice composite crossing, Early Genesee Giant, the result of 8 successive crosses, is one of his cultivars widely distributed in 1893. Two other cultivars of A.N. Jones, Silversheaf and Red Wave are still grown.

1887 began the gradual transference of wheat improvement projects from the fields of everyday farmers to "trained investigators" in the United States Department of Agriculture and the various State Agriculture Experiment Stations so we are proud to recognize the efforts of individuals such as Mr. A.N. Jones by including Jones Fife in our wheat plots.