The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-10-16
WHEAT HA" been
MANS FOOD since
NEOuThIC TIMES
Grant Allen in Clout's Calendar).

Grant Allen in Clouts Calendar).
The original parents Of all our GER
calls were grasses of one kind or other,
often belonging to remotely different
groups, but almost all indigenous in
habitants Of the Central Asian and
Mediterranean regions.
The pedigree of wheat, the most i'm
portant of all our cereals. is somewhat
obscure. 1t has varied to a greater de-
gree from its humble original than
any other known artificial plant. For
tuna tely, we are still able to recover
the steps by which it has been devel-
oped from what might at first appear
to be a very unlikely and ill-endowed
ancestor indeed.
The English couch-grass, which
often proves such a troublesome weed
in our own country, is represented
around the Mediterranean shores by
allied genius of annual plants known
as goat-grass; and one Of these weedy
goat-grasses has now been shown with
great probability to be the wild form
of our cultivated wheat. 1t is a small
diva irish grass, with very pretty seeds,
and not nearly SO full spike as the
cereals of agriculture.
When man first reappears in north
ern Europe, after the great icesheets
once more cleared away from the face
of the land. we find him growing and
using a rude form of wheat from the
earliest moment of his re-eStaDlish-
ment in the desolated plains. Among
| the pile-villages of the Swiss lakes,
which were Inhabited by men of the
newer stone age, we find side by side
! with the polished flint axes and the
( handmade pottery of the period sew
eral cereals raised by the lake dwell
ers on the neighboring mainland
The charred seeds and waterlogged
shocks disinterred from the ruins Of
the villages include millet, barley and
several other grains; but by far the
commonest among thenr is peculiar
small form Of wheat, which has been
named scientifically after the ancient
folk by whom it was used.
Not First Grain.
This lake-wheat, however, though II
dates back to the very beginning OF
the period in Europe. can not be con
sidered as the first variety developed
from the primitive goat-grass by the
earliest cultivators; it is SO superior
in character to the wild stock that il
must already have undergone a long
course of tillage and selection in more
genial climates, and must have beer
!
atively perfect condition by the shor
dark people who settled our continen
Immediately after the termination O.
the glacial era.
From the neolithic time forward,
the improved seed has continued tt
grow bigger and bigger, both in the
size of the shocks and in the girth o
the individual grains, until the pres
ent day. The original small lake
wheat, indeed fingered on in use il
Switzerland and the north down t
the days of the Roman conquest; but
meanwhile, in Egypt and the south
still better varieties were being grad
ually developed by careful selection
and we find both kinds side by sid
in some few instances; thus showing
that both were grown together at tn
same time by races in different stage
of civilization.
With the introduction of these BET
ter kinds by the Greek and Roma1
colonists into Gaul and Britain, tn
old lake-wheat became quite extinct
Indeed, in every case the cultivate
seeds and fruits which grew in nee
lithic garden plots were much sma
Ter than those Of our own time, where
as the wild seeds and wild fruit
found under the same circumstance
are just as large as their congener
of the present day. A lapse whic
makes relatively little difference t
the stable wild weeds makes relative
ly great differences in the very 2la:
tic and carefully selected cultivate
plants.
Scientists have demonstrated tina
nearly so per cent Of our bodily ills re