The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-09-07

ROMANCE OF WHEAT.

Man doesn't know where he came
rom; n he doesn't know where the
says a writer in the Kansas Civ star
somewhere in the early days, before
any story was ever written, Mr.. Man
and Mr.. Wheat got together. And
oody has since been able to pry them
apart. These old cronies are closer
ehums than Damon and Pythias. Yes.
they are more like the Siamese twins:
cut them apart and they'd die. You
remember Damon was willing to be
executed that Pythias might live. Blu,
these old friends. man and wheat.
couldn't serve each other that way.
If one died the other could not i've.
Let the worlds wheat crop fail for a
single year. and famine would depopu-
late the globe. On the other hand. il
mar disappeared from the earth the
wheat would die out, too, and be seen
no more.
a pretty little story. isn't it: and SO
sentimental: But really there is no
sentiment about 1t at all. Man makes
his bread OF wheat because wheat
contains all the elements Of food. It
Grows In all countries. Its berry shells
easily out Of its husks: which can't be
said OF oats or rice. For that a
the cave men used to go out where the
Wild wheat was growing and shell the
seed out by hand and eat 1t. These
grains OF wild wheat were very small;
not much larger than mustard seed.
went by. men learned to plant the
wild wheat seeds in ground they had
cultivated with sharp sticks. In this
ground the wheat berries grew much
larger than In the wild state. There
was more starch in them. And az
starch is the food that gives man en-.
ergy, the more wheat he ate the more
strength he had to raise more wheat.
Fine. So man increased in numbers
until at last he was more numerous
than any other sort of animal. Wheat
was the cause of 1t all. Wheat made
man king OF the lands. and in honor
OF this victory even to this day men
crown themselves In summe with a
hat made Of wheat straw.
This increase Of men and wheat has
been going on side by side since the
time when It was morning in far-or
Asia land. It has been Thousands Of
years: perhaps millions Of years. No
n Jaw the beginning. but we now on
earth have seen the end. Within our
own lifetime we have see the worlds
wheat field spread till It could spread
no farther. The last raw deld has
been Invaded by the pillow. There are
no new continents 10 DC discovered. no
traekless prairies waiting in their vir-
ginity unkissed Of the wooing barley.
Tho march Of bread. which started in
Asia In the dim dawn, has circled the
globe following the westward sun
across the continents. until today. the
wheat fields 81 Oregon ana British
Columbia wave their yellow banners
toward the shores Of Asia. Tho jour-
ney around the world 10 done.
Under mans tillage wheat has be-
come a rich. luxuriant plant-much
bigger and less hardy than tts ances-
tor. the Wild wheat. Yet its ancestor
has perished from the earth. Nowhere
on ali the globe does a spear OF wild
wheat blossom today. And II the tame
wheat were turned out to tight for It.
self among wild weeds and grasses. ex-
have shown that in three
years the wheat dies out entirely IN
the unequal struggle. But wheat no
longer has to tight for its life. Man
has laid out the whole earth into Aes4s.
He has fenced the wheat with harbed
wire. All the animals must keep OF
the Gsass.