New Britain herald., 1922-03-03
WHEAT PROVED AN
 OLD TIME PRODUCT
Cultivation Of Seeds Commenced
 in Year 1920

Chicago, March 3.--Wheats which are known 10 have been used by psim- live man 10000 to 15.000 years ago ard which are still cultivated in cor- tain parts Of the world. rom part of the rew exhibit of cultivated wheats wnica las recently been added to the economic collections of Field Museum of Natural History here.
 Modern cultivated wncats from var ioIs parts Of the wrod complete the exhibit. Most of the wheats have been acquired through the coopera- ton of the office Of Cereal Investiga ton oc the Department of Agriculture. This department is constantly engaged in growing new and old varieties of wheat in order to determine their suitability under various conditions in the United States.
 Cultivated in 1920.
 Wheat was first introduced into this country in 1520 by the Spaniards and later into New England and Virginia by the early settlers. according 10 Di- rector D. C. Davis, of the museum.
 Tn Europe and Asia 1t has been grown since prehistoric times" MT. Davis states. The beginning of its cultivation belongs to an early per- iod in the history of the human race.
 Mankind has probably always used the seeds of the wild grasses for food. Some of these furnish very fair sized grains and from such our cultivated cereals are unquestionably derived, though botanists cannot now always trace them to their wild prototypes. An example of such Is the wild En- mer of Palestine a large grained wild grass which has been claimed by some to be the ancestor of our cultivated wheats of today.
 Certain primitive wheats are still grown in places in southern Europe. Such are the Einkorn, Emmer and Spelt, each of which probably repre- sents a group of wheats of separate origin. The Eikorn still grows wild in Siberia and elsewhere in the South of Europe. Spelt is the oldest of the cultivated wheats. It was probably the wheat of ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt.
 Various Kinds Grown.
 Together with these simple forms there are to be seen such unusual forms as Polish Wheat, which in spite of it's name does not come from Poland, but from the mountainous regions of Spain; Alaska wheat which Is of the type known as the Miracle Wheat" or "Seven-headed wheat of Egypt" and Club Wheat grown in Chile and in our Rocky Mountains.
 '"The Durum Wheat from Russia, which furnishes flour for macaroni and pastes looks much like long bris- tie barley. The small bristle Turkey Wheat has become one of our leading hard winter wheats of the United States. Wihelmina, a north Europ can soft wheat, may be seeR together with the chief American types. The hard spring wheats of the north western great plains region of the United States and Canada are repre- scented by Marquis, Red Fife, and Kitchener varieties. Particularly re- markabe is a huge-eared wheat call- ed Dicklow, grown under irrigation in Idaho.
 Adjoining the wheats at the mu- scum may be seen some of the main kinds of barley. Ordinarily the most bristly of the grains among these is a perfectly bald variety, which is f grown for hay and may survive, as a fodder. long after cultivation of the other becomes obsolete with the ces- sation of matchmaking.
 2 There has also been added an tn- teresting case' of wild grasses, rang ing from Alaska and Canadian fod- der grasses to the Silver Pampas Grass of South America and Natal Grass. This South African grass now helps to impart roseate hue to the plains of the sandy peninsula of Flor ida'