The GR's were not the first to try winter wheat production in Kansas. Note that the article listed below comes with extensive documentation of the sources of the information. You will note the last reference listed at the end of this email where an extensive study has been made of Mennonite sources and nothing has been found documenting the Mennonite introduction of the winter wheat. They note that there are probably letters in the hands of Mennonite families in Kansas that could add information to this study. ======================================================== Kansas: THE FIRST STEPS IN WINTER WHEAT PRODUCTION, 1855-1870 http://www.skyways.org/orgs/fordco/malin/02.html INTRODUCTION OF HARD RED WINTER WHEAT http://www.skyways.org/orgs/fordco/malin/12.html One story attributed the introduction of hard winter wheat to a colony of French settlers in Marion county prior to 1873. [2] Thus far in connection with this study no contemporary confirmation of this allegation has been encountered. About the same time a hard spring wheat was being raised in Marion county, but no record of a name has been found. [3] The name Crimean was applied to a soft spring wheat imported from Russia and grown in Marion county in 1873. [4] Another type of wheat, called Odessa, was distributed by the United States Department of Agriculture as early as 1865 and one or more strains of this name and general description were found in Kansas as early as 1874 and were planted either as a spring or a winter wheat. [5] In Dickinson county a strain of wheat was introduced by M. Dowling in the late seventies under the name of Bulgarian. [6] A number of Russian wheats were the subjects of experimentation at the Kansas State Agricultural College, the first mentions occurring in 1881 and 1882, The generally accepted story of hard winter wheat attributes the introduction to Mennonite, settlers from Southern Russia in the mid-seventies. The first four of these cases need not be considered further in this connection, but the latter three require careful examination. The extensive Mennonite immigration to the United States and Canada during the seventies came primarily from Southern Russia, but some came from Germany. Thus references are found to Russian sheep, Russian oats, Russian threshers, Russian ovens, and the Mennonites shipped the first flax from Marion county. [19] The strangest aspect of the whole situation is, however, the absence of any reference to Russian wheat during the first years of this migration. According to recent Mennonite historians it was this colony of twenty-four families, of whom Wiebe was one, that is credited with the introduction of Turkey hard winter wheat, each family of whom had brought about a peck of it, planting it in the fall of 1814 and harvesting it in 1875. Such a story of exclusive credit is possible, but scarcely seems to meet the first test of historical criticism, that of reasonableness. It would seem that, if the Wiebe group brought a remarkable new wheat, and no other Mennonites did, he did not realize its significance, not yet being blessed with sufficient wisdom of hindsight. In view of the extensiveness of the migration, it would seem more probable that many families brought wheat with them from Russia. Furthermore, it is probable that more than one variety or strain of Russian wheat was included in the impedimenta of these German Mennonites in their transit to America. There is a story that Turkey wheat was relatively new to the Mennonites and was raised only by those of the Molotschna district, having been introduced by Bernard Warkcntin, Senior, about 1860. If the Mennonites were not the first or the only ones to introduce the hard winter wheat, at any rate, they grew it extensively. At the same time, however, the fact should be recognized that there is no reason to assume that without the Mennonites there would be no hard winter wheat in the Middle Great Plains region. ================================================= 25. R. G. Gaeddert, a member of the staff of the Kansas State Historical society, is making an intensive study from Mennonite sources of their relation to the problem [of when winter wheat was introduced by the Mennonites]. The present author is of the opinion that there must be a substantial volume of contemporary correspondence in the hands of Mennonite families that should clarify the role of that sect in the introductions made by them. Furthermore, only careful studies of the agricultural history of Southeastern Europe during the nineteenth century will give a satisfactory answer to the problems of the distribution of the different varieties of wheats at particular dates pertinent to the several introductions of wheats into the United States.