The emigrant aid journal of Minnesota. [volume] (Nininger City, Minn. Terr. [i.e. Minn.]) 1856-1858, 1858-02-10
On Wheat.

OF all the plants cultivated, wheat is the most i'm.
portsut to the welfare Of man for pure wheat IL the
standard of food, and more than the precious metals,
The standard Of all values. It is chiefly the product OF
temperate climes, but it is successfully cultivated within
seven or eight degrees Of the polar circle, AMI aourishes
with considerable vigor on tho verge OF the tropics
The highes: condition of man-the perfection indeed OF
the race-hss always been associated with wheat pro-
from the DAYS Of the Pharsohs downward to the enllght-
eminent of the present times. The rice eating nations
are inferior to the consumers of wheat. In the Arctics,
where 6.h is the chief food, and in the Tropics, where
acid fruits predominate, man approxinates the inferior
animals, and biz cultivation is of q physical character
As We descend 10 the scale of human degradation, we
End the root-eatiny Indians of America, At the lowest
extremity of the scale. We are, therefore, justified in
looking upon a grain Of wheat with an interest border
ing on veneration, and everything connected With its
history assumes positive Importance.
No record remains of its FIRST cultivation, and the
best informed differ as to its origin. 1t is maintained by
some that wheat, a. vt present known, Is an artificial
product. In confirmation Of this hypothesis is adduced
The fact, that wherever the early history of the cultivs-
ton Of auy species is known, it Is found that the hus-
bandman first applied to bis use the imperfect plant
growing wild about him. He finds some berry, the
taste Of which is agreeable, and in order to have it more
~rfent;:ul. he begins its improvement; the desired object
+ accumulated, and finally, a fruit 10 produced, 50 s-
perior to the one found growing wild, that it is impossi-
Bic to trace any necessary resemblance. Analogous to
this example, IL Is t0Oug0t, Is LUG OJI&o VI Wu0os } wv
botapists, distinguished for their requirements, profess
to have found the important p~rogenitor, in q grass grow
ing wild on the shores Of the Mediterranean, known to
scientific men by the name Of "ryiops.
The wonderful vitality Of all seeds is proverbial; that
Of wheat is more remarkable than any other kind, for
its grains are susceptible Of being preserved to an indeh-
mite period Of time, for it seems shat age neither injuries
their vitality nor their value for bread. Wheat has
been known to be covered with water Of foods, so long.
that every kin ofvegetation was utterly destroyed, and
vet on the s~ubsidencc of the waters, it has sprung up
from the root and come to perfection. Quite recently u
scientific gentleman, making archaeological researches IN
the south Of France, in some of the ancient sombs,
fourteen centuries old, found imbedded with some pre-
served bodies a species of wheat, it being the habit, IN
the days of the FIRST Gallo kings, to place in the collins
Of eubaimed persons, a few Of these almost iadestructl.
Bile seeds. Some of this wheat was sown and the
gentleman was surprised tc see it sprout forth from elk
teen to twenty stalks from each grain. AS they grew
they became angular, and much stronger and more Wig
orous than the common wheat.
The family Of Sir William Symonds, Of England,
brought into that country some wheat from Thebes the
mummy from which it was taken must have been EN-.
h.lmed more Il . l three thousand Eve hundred ago
This wheat was planted and :hrived, and produced over
one thousand six hundred grains from fifteen etems
which sprung from a single seed.
There is still another inherent virtue about wheat
over every other seed. This is its power to thrive at q
temperature obstructive to ordinary vegetable life. While
the farmer sits costly BY his winter fire, and looks out
upon the frozen landscape, re cannot help thinking Of
tho delicate young wheat plants, of what is their condi.
ton DO they vege.ate when all else in nature Is torpid
Covered with snow as it is, the agriculturist knows that
his young whea, still vegetables, still works. and in
spite of the freezing blast, and the pervading death chill,
which rests apon tbe landscape, extends its roots down
into the soil in searct. q uouri.hnent. The b'tanista
iufo. Ia w gravsly that, in wheat, this is Il specific vital.
ity.' 50 wonderful, indeed, ;slthc power Of wheat to
,esist cold, ,ha. i grain dropped upon the thick ice over
a cougeslod river, has been known to sprout and send
cut through : small oYihce. a blade t~o or three inches
long, the roots a, the same simc penetrating into the
very heart OF the hard ribbed ice.
When wheat is planted at a proper depth and in
favorable soil, it vegetables slowly, pushing to the surface
one cylindrical flame Mt, while numerous 6hres strike
downward into the Garth. These supply the plant wit!
aou:ihmeu., and in Due time a knot is formed at thu
surface Of the soil, from which %a . several f re- rs. s nha.s stem "A