The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1881-01-13
4 Short History Of Wheat.

The varieties of wheat are almost num-
berless, and their characters vary widely
under the influence of cultivation and
climate. There are said to be $50 distinct
varieties in the museum of Cornell Uni
versity. On the slopes Of the mountains
of Mexico and Kalapa the luxuriance Of
vegetation is such that wheat does not
form ears. In Japan, tits said, the wheat
has been so developed by the Japanese
farmers, that no matter how much ma
nure is used, the straw will not grow
larger, though the length of the cars
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 con-
verted in the same time to winter wheat.
In general. wheat is the most esteemed
ofthe cereal productions, but in Abysinia,
according to Parkyns, the flour of the
''teff" or "dugassa," scarcely palatable to
Europeans, is preferred by the natives to
any other grain.
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 cul
tivated before the period Of history, as
samples have been recovered from the
lacustrine dwellings of Switzerland. 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 the
spring, and in the days of Queen Eliza.
beth its cultivation was but partial.
Indeed, wheat was nm article of compara-
tive luxury till nearly the seventeenth
century. In India wheat seems not to be
native, but introducers of its Sanscrit
name signifies "food of the barbarian; )"
yet three varieties are mentioned in the
Bhavaprakassa, one of which is large
grained, is said to have come from the
West, and another, small grained or
beardless wheat, is said to have been iu.
digenous to Middle India.
The first wheat raised in the "New
World" was sown by Spaniards on the
island of Isabella, in January, 1494, and
OIL NldTCtl OU luc c.tlS NCIC SOGuCiSQ.
The foundation of the wheat harvest OF
Mexico is said to have been three or four
grains carefully cultivated in 1880, and
preserved by a slave of Cortez. The crop
Of Quito was raised by a Franciscaa monk
in front of the convent. Garcilasso de
Ia Verga afirms 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 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 hourished finely.
In 1911 the FIRST wheat appears to have
been sown in Virginia. In 1926 samples
of wheat grown in the Dutch colony al
New Netherlands were shown in Holland
1t is probable that wheat was sown in the
Plymouth colony prior to 1926, though
we find no record Of it, and in 1929 whea,
was ordered from England to be used as
seed. In 17lS wheat was introduced intu
the valley of the Mississippi by the
"Western Company" In 1899 it was
among the cultivated crops of the Simos
Indians of the Celia river, New Mexico
-MiHcr's Magazine