The Ottawa free trader., 1880-10-02
HOUSEHOLD AND FARM.
A short History of Wheat.

The varieties of wheat are almost number
less, and their characters vary widely under tht
influence of cultivation and climate. There
are SAID to be $50 distinct varieties IN the mu
scum of Cornell university. On the slopes OF
the mountains of Mexico and Nalpa the lux
uriance of vegetation is such that wheat does
not form ears. In Japan, 1t Is SAID, the whea,
has been so developed by the Japanese farm
ers, that no matter how much manure is used
the straw will not grow larger, though the
length of the ears increases. The height is
rarely more than two feet, and often not more
than 90 inches Through selection, winter
wheat has been changed to summer wheat in
three years, and summer wheat converted in
the same time to winter wheat. In general
wheat is the most esteemed of the cereal pro-
ductlOns, but in Abyssinia, according to Par
kvns the flour of the "teff" or "dogussa,' "
scarcely palatable to Europeans, IS preferred
; by the natives to any other grain.
Isis was supposed to have introduced wheat
into Egypt, Dcmeter into Greece, and the En-
peror Chn-Wong into China, about 5000 B.
c. In Europe it was cultivated before the pc
riod OF history as samples have been recov.
cred from the lacustrine dwellings Of Switzer-
land. In England 1t was probably not cult
vated by the ancient Brltons, but the Anglo
Saxons when Bede wrote, early IN the Sth cen
tury, sowed their wheat in the spring, and in
the days Of Queen Elizabeth its cultivation
was but partial. Indeed, wheat was an article
of comparative luxury till nearly the 18th cen
tury In India whea. seems not to be native,
but utintroduCcd, for its Sanscrlt name signifies
food of the barbarian - yet three varieties
are mentioned in the Bhavaprakasa one of
which, a large grained, is said to have come
from the west, and another, a snall-grained
or bearillcss wheat is said to have been lndi.
genous to Middle India.
The first wheat raised in the "Ncw World
was sown by Spaniards on the island of lsa
bella in January, l49f, and on March 5Oth
the ears we're gathered. The foundation OF
the wheat harvest of Mexico is said to nave
been three or four grams carefully cultivated
in 1880, and preserved by slave of Cortez
The first crop of Quito was raised by Fran
clscan monk in front of the convent Garci
lasso dc la Vega alirms that in Peru, up to
1547, wheatenbrcad had not been sold at Gus
CO. Wheat was first sown by Gosnold on Cut
tyhunk, one of the Elizabeth islands in Buz
yards Bay, off Massachusetts, in 1902, when
he first explored the cost In 1904 on the is
land of St Croix, near Calais Me-, the SieuI
de Monts had some wheat sown, which flour
ished finely. In 1Gl1 the first wheat appears
to have been sown in Virginia In 1926 sam
piles ofwheat grown in the Dutch colony at New
Netherlands were shown in Holland. 1t is
probable that wheat was sown in the Plymouth
colony prior to 1922 though we find no record
of it, and in 1920 wheat was ordered from Eng
land to be used as seed. In 171S wheat was
introduced into the Valley of the Mississippi
by the Western Company" In 1899 1t was
among the cultivated crops of the Simos In
dians of the Gila River, New Mexico.-WN
lerS' National Magdzine.