Grand Forks herald., 1917-03-31
The Story of Bread
Wheat is King. Not cotton-Bg Yields and High Quality
Cannot be Expected From Poor Seed-White
Wheat Bread is What the World Wants.
By J. G. HAney.

BY J. G. HAney.
Every observation and experience
as we'll rs our good sense tell us that
like produces like. or tends to.
Hence We could not expect big yields
and high quality from poor seed. No
effort should be spared that would
help to increase the quantity and
quality of BREAD.
The Story Of Bread"
We who have lived during peace
ful times and where plenty OF every
necessity has been easily obtained. do
not realize the importance of just
common BREAD.
The story is a long one and very in
teresting. For fifty centuries the
Fifty centuries!- think of it-cen-
turies of light centuries of darkness.
Great wealth sat in the high places.
great poverty filled the lowlands: the
few knew much. the many knew
little: the thousands idled and We're
round and fat. the millions toiled and
we're cold and hungrSs the world
moved forward. yet the world stood
still.
Man furrowed his brow. bent his
hack. and crumhled away before his
time. all in an effort to scratch from
the earth q few grains OF wheat with
which to keep the spark of life flick
ering in his starved and shiverin4
body.
Bread. Bread. Give us bread!"
That was the cry. Year after year
it was heard. But the world rolled
quietly on its way. and the cry was
not answered. The wise men were
busy gazing at the stars. and those
not so wise could not think of a way
to more bread.
Fighting Did Not Make Bread.
and later. In New York. men. women
and children fought for bread-just
plain. common, everyday bread-the
kind we place on our tables along
with the knives and forks. the kind
that became so cheap that hotels and
restaurants forgot to charge for 1t.
1t seems rather strange that people
should be forced to fight for bread.
That is to say. it seems strange to
US who live in this age of plenty. oh.
yes. It's true that our large cities still
have their bread lines. But bread
lines are not for the lack Of bread.
They are for the lack Of something
or other which puts up the fight that
gets bread. and all that goes with It.
Plenty Of Bread Now.
There is plenty of bread today. and
1t Is cheap enough. too. Every bread
line and every soup house is a sign
that somewhere in our civic. industri-
al or social machinery, something is
out Of gear. If man is willing to
work, he should be given work to do:
If he is not willing he should be given
something else-say. loaf of bread.
all properly placed. However. this is
a problem to be worked out by our
economical and sociological friends
But to go back to the days when
people fought for bread-no farther
back than your great grandfather and
mine. They might better have saved
their strength, for there was no bread
to be had. for there was no flour, for
there was no wheat, for there were
no quick ways of gathering the har-
vest
And all the while the world stood
still. One can't move very fast, nor
go very far on an empty stomach.
We sometimes read Of geniuses rising
from poverty. But alas, alack, few
sician onee said that he o%sa s
success to having learned to. starve
before he learned to play. But the
art of starving Is not popular. It Is
for the genius only.
The world has moved some since
1t ceased to stand still-waiting to be
fed. You may not have thought of it
in just this way-few Of us have-but
wheels of progress for all time. And
as the world had stood still for so
many years, its release was a signal
for leaps and bounds.
1 was about to say that to know
the story of bread Is to know the story
of the world. But suppose we inter-
line this with the thought that to
know the story Of bread is to know
the story Of Industrial and commerci-
al progress. BY its footprints we can
follow that path that leads straight
from serfdom to INSTRUMENTATION
the man in a cave to the man in q
skyscraper.
Where Wheat Came From.
Just where wheat came from, and
what it was before it was wheat, are
largely matters of speculation. It
may have come from the valley of
the Nile. or the Euphrates, or from
Sicily. or from some other place.
AS far back as history takes us
which is far enough-there was
wheat.
Ages of cultivation, and the expert
ments Of thousands of unheardof
Luther Burbanks have given US the
fine large grains which now go to
make our daily bread. Enough of
these grains were gathered from the
wheat fields Of the United States in
1915 to make 1000 100000 bushels.
Were all these bushels placed in
freight cars, and the cars coupled to-
gether, there would be two mamoth
trains-one reaching from New York
to San Francisco, and the other from
Regina, which Is the capital of Sas-
katcheyan up in Canada, down to
New Orleans, in Louisiana, with sew
eral thousand cars backed onto the
sidings.
Every morning the world wakes up
hungry. It has been doing this since
the first woman first spoke to the
first man. The morning of every day
sees the world rub It's eyes, stretch
itself, push up the curtain, and ask
for bread.
Everyone Eats Bread.
We have to learn to eat the oyster.
and the olive and some other things
better or worse. But we don't have
to learn to eat wheat bread. It is
the staff upon which strong nations
lean. In point of fact, to eat wheat
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