The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1912-01-10
Statisticians Say That $50 Loaves
Per Annum Is Average
American Appetite
WHEAT DATES FURTHER
BACK THAN HISTORY
Crop of 1910, Placed on Freight
Cars, Would Make Two Trains
Reaching Across Continent and
From Regina to New Orleans

Like all common accompaniment
of daily life, bread has been so quietly
accepted and complacently eaten
fact that it is not until somebody
takes the trouble to write about 1t
and its significance, that the average
man or woman realizes how inter-
esting a story Is that of bread. A
brochure published by the Interna-
tional Harvester company of Chi
cago Identities the progress of the
world during the past century with
the improved facilities for growing
and harvesting bread and so self
demonstrable are its arguments that
no one wants to quarrel with the
writer when he places Cyrus McCor-
mick among the great ones in the
history of industrial development
Long on Art
"The Greeks and Romans" says
the little book, were long on art,
but short on bread. A modern farm
er, with the practice OF modern SCI
entifc knowledge, and the use OF
modern machines, can with three
months labor, raise as much wheat
as could an old Roman had he work.
ed ten hous a day, six days q week,
for all the weeks OF his three score
and ten. In the time OF Nero, it
took four and a half days labor to
raise bushel of wheat; when the
reaper was invented, it took three
hours; and in the time Of Roosevelt
1t takes ten minutes"
Average Rattons
To be confronted with ESQ leaves
of bread. even of the modest size
deemed sufficient by the baker Of to-
day. and told that 1t was ones menu
for a year, would overwhelm tho own
err of even the heartiest appetite. But
statisticians have figured that the
average amount Of wheat eaten by
every person in the United States 10
alb ,ut five bushels year. This,
passed through the mill, comes out 4
barrel Of -four. or about ESQ loaves
Bread is SO cheap today. so much
the ordinary article on sverybody's
table. that 1t Is hard indeed to inn
agine the time when 1t was consid-
cred a luxury, the food only Of the
rich.
Origin of Wheat
Just where wheat came from. anG
what 1t was before 1t was wheat, are
largely matters of speculation. Il
may have come from the valley of the
Nile. or the Euphrates, or from Sic
lily or from some other place. Al
far back as history goes. there wal
wheat. Those who know the most
about It say that, once upon a time.
1t was a wild grass. or perhaps a
degraded lily. Recently the thought
was projected that wheat Is a de.
scendant Of wild emmer," traces Of
which are found among the rocks Of
upper Gallilee. round about Mount
Hermon.
Big Grains Developed
Ages OF cultivation and the ax-
periments Of thousands Of unheard.
of Luther Burbanks are responsible
for the fine large grains from which
IS made the bread Of today. Enough
of these grains were gathered from
the wheat fields OF the United States
in 1910 to make nearly 700.o0o.000
bushels. Were all these bushels
placed in freight cars and the cars
coupled together, there would be two
mammoth trains. one reaching from
New York to San Francisco. and the
other from Regina. the capital OF
Saskatchewan to New Orleans with
several hundred cars packed onto
the sidings.
Would Depose Cotton
The writer argues that it is a mis-
take to call cotton king. Food is
more important than clothes and
wheat contains all the fifteen es-
sential elements Of nutrition. Were
ons compelled to 60 through life on
SINCE diet, wheat bread would car
ry him further and better than any
one article of food.
1t was not however until whole
sale methods of harvesting wheat
were introduced. that the world APP
preached the place where II had
bread enough. The reaper drove
drudgery from the farm and released
two-thirds of the population for tina
shop, the store and the office. There
upon modern business was born and
commerce reached its arms around
thv world. American civilization
pushed westward at the rate of thir-
ty miles a year. Railroads came,
cities were builded and inventions
multiplied.
Garden of Eden Located
James J. Hill has said that Land
without population Is a wilderness,
and population without bread a mob"
And he might have added. says the
writer OF the Story of Bread. that
both land and population without
cheap bread are fannie and death.
Emphasizing wheat as the hrst
essential for housekeeping, he main
tains the belief In spite OF the effort
made by history TO prove that the
first couple set up housekeeping tn
a particular fondness for the apple
If history were true. he asks, would
not the exact location of the Gar
den of Eden be somewhere out west
---say IN Idaho. oregon or Washing.
tonY