Gilpin observer., 1920-01-08
WHEAT ONCE WEED
Most important Cereal Has Been
Developed.
Exhaustive Researches Have Proved
That II Had More Humble ORR
gin Than Any Other Known
Artificial Plant.

The original parents of all our
cereals were grasses of one kind or
other. often belonging to remotely DIFF
ierent groups, but almos: all indigen-
Gus inhabitants OF the central Asian
and Mediterranean regions.
The pedigree of wheat, the most iu-
portant of all our cereals, is somewhat
obscure. 1t has varied to n greater de
gree from its humble original than any
other known artificial plant. Fortu-
nately, we are still able to recover the
steps by which it has been developed
IRON what might at first sight appear
to be 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
an allied genus of annual plants known
us 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. II is small
dwartish grass, with very petty seeds,
and not nearly so full spike as the
cereals of agriculture.
When man first reappears in north
ern Europe, after the great ice sheets
once more cleared away from the face
of the land. we find him growing and
using rude form of wheat from the
earliest moment of his re-establsh-
ment in the desOlated plains Among
the pile-villages OF the Swiss lakes,
which We're 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 water-logged
shocks disinterred from the ruins of
the villages include millet, barley and
several other grains; but by far the
commonest among them Is peculiar
small form of wheat. which has been
named scientifically after the ancient
folk by whom II was used
This lake-wheat, however, though IL
dates back to the very beginning OF
the period in Europe. cannot be con-
sidered as the first variety developed
from the primitive goat-grass by the
character to the wild stock that IL
must already have undergone n long
course of tillage and selection in more
genial climates, and must have been
brought back to Europe in compar-
atively perfect condition by the short
dark people who settled our continent
Immediately after the termination o.
the glacial era.
From the neolithic time forward, the
improved seed has continued to grow
bigger and bigger, both in the size or
the shocks and in the girth of the in
dividual grains until the present day.
The original small lake-wheat, indeed,
fingered on in use in Switzerland and
the north down to the days of the
Roman conquest; but, meanwhile. in
Egypt and the South. still better varie-
ties were being gradually developed by
careful selection; and we find both
kinds side by side In some few in
stances; thus showing that both were
grown together at the same time by
races in different stages of civilization
With the introduction of these bet
ter kinds by the Greek and Roman col
Onists into Gaul and Britain. the old
lake-wheat became quite extinct. In
deed, in every case the cultivated
seeds and fruits which grew in ne0-
llthic garden plots were much smaller
than those of our own time. whereas
the wild seeds and wild fruits found
under the same circumstances are just
as large as their cOngeners of the
present day. A lapse which makes
relatively little difference to the stable
wild weeds makes relatively great diff
ferences in the very plastic and care
fully selected cultivated plants
Grant Allen in Colin Clout's Calendar.
"a 4