The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1880-04-14
Wheat in History.

Isis was supposed to have introduced
wheat into Egypt, Demeter into Greece,
and the Emperor Chin-Wong into
China, about 5000 B. G. In Europe it
was cultivated before the period of his:
tory, rs samples have been recovered
from the lacustrine dwellings of Swift
zerland. In England it was probably
not cultivated by the ancient Britons,
but the Anglo-Saxons, when Bede
wrote, early in the eighth century,
sowed their wheat in spring, and in the
days of Queen Elizabeth its cultivation
was but partial. Indeed, wheat was
an article of comparative luxury till
nearly the seventeenth century. In
India wheat seems not to be native, but
introduced, for its Sanscrit name signi-
ties ''food of the barbarians;" yet three
varieties are mentioned in the BhaVa-
prakasa, one of which, a large-grained,
is said to have come from the west,
and another, small grained or beard
less wheat, is said to have been lnalg-
enous to Middle India
The first wheat raised in the New
World was sown by Spaniards on the
island of Isabella, in January, 1884, and
on March 30 the ears were gathered.
The foundation of the wheat harvest OF
Mexico is said to have been three or
four grains carefully cultivated in 1880,
and preserved by slave OF Cortez.
The first crop at Quito was raised by a
Franciscan monk in front of the con-
vent. Garcilasso de Ia Vega affirms
that in Peru. up to 1547, wheaton
bread had not been sold at Cusco.
Wheat was first sown by Gosnold on
Cuttyhunk, one OF the Elizabeth islands
in Buzzard's, bay, off Massachusetts,
in 1902, when he first explored the
coast. In 1904, on the island of
St. Croix, near Calais. Me-, the Sieur
de Monts had some wheat sown, which
flourished finely. In 1911 the first whea
appears to have been sown in Virginia.
In 1925 samples of wheat grown in the
Dutch colony at New Netherlands was
shown in Holland. 1t is probable that
wheat was sown in the Plymouth colony
prior to 1929, though we find no record
of it, and in 1929 wheat was ordered
from England to be used as seed. In
l7l8 wheat was introduced into the
valley of the Mississippi by the "West-
ern COMPANY" In 1899 it was among
the cultivated crops ofthe Simos Indians
of the Celia river. New Mexico.
The varieties of wheat are almost
mum berless, and their characters vary
widely under the influence of cultiva-
ton and climate. There are said to
be 1870 distinct varieties in the museum
of Cornell university. On the slopes OF
the mountains of Mexico and Xalapa
the luxuriance of vegetation is such
that wheat does not form ears. In Ja-
pan, it is said, the wheat has been 80
developed by the Japanese farmers that
no matter how much manure is used
the straw will not grow larger, though
the length of the ear increases. The
height is rarely more than two feet, and
often not more than twenty inches.
Through selection, winter wheat has
been changed to summer wheat in three
years, and summer wheat converted
within the same time to winter wheat.
In general, wheat is the most es-
teemed of the cereal productions. but in
Abyssinia, according to Parkyns. the
flour of the "teff" or "dogussa,
scarcely palatable to Europeans, is pre-
ferred by the natives to any other grain
Land and Home.