Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/610

 586 WHEAT flowered; the lower palet is pointed, or fur- nished at the tips with an awn of variable length; stamens three. Besides the grain- producing species, all of which are annuals, there are several with perennial roots, which by some botanists have been placed in a dis- tinct genus, agropyron, the most important of which is the troublesome T. repens. (See COUCH GRASS.) Wheat has a dense four-sided spike ; the turgid spikelets are three- to five- flowered, with ventricose, blunt glumes ; tho palets awned or awnless, and the grain free from the upper palet, with a longitudinal fur- row on one side, very turgid on the other, and hairy at the top. The spring and winter wheats, which have been sometimes described as distinct, are only forms produced by culti- vation, as it has been repeatedly demonstrated that by a few years' successive growing spring wheat may be converted into the winter vari- ety, and nice versa. Like other cereals, wheat is not certainly known in the wild state, and its origin has been the subject of much specu- lation ; some suppose it to be a plant now ex- tinct in tho wild state, others that it is the cul- tivated form of what are now regarded as dis- tinct wild species. De Candolle is disposed to accept the testimony of travellers who say they have found T. tulgare in various parts of Asia in localities where it was not likely to have escaped from cultivation. About 1855 M. Fa- bre asserted that ho had established by experi- ment the fact that wheat was eegilopt orata (a common grass in southern Europe), developed by cultivation ; ho asserted that by successive Bowings ho had produced forms of (rgilopt which pass for species, and by continuing this course for 12 years produced perfect wheat. His experiments are not credited, as the grass is now known to have been accidentally or otherwise hybridized with wheat. The varie- ties of wheat are very numerous, one French experimenter having cultivated over 150, and another 322. The plant differs in stature, habit, and foliage, in the size and shape of the spike or head, the number of flowers in the spikolet, the shape and size of tho floral enve- lopes, the presence or absence of a beard or awn and its character, and the size, form, color, and hairiness of the grain. So widely differ- ent are some of tho varieties, which have re- tained their identity through centuries of cul- tivation, that some botanists think they must have originated from four or five distinct spe- cies ; other kinds vary greatly with the charac- ter of the soil. The mention of wheat in tho Old Testament, and its culture by tho ancient Egyptians, are proofs of its antiquity, and Chi- nese history declares that it was introduced in- to China by the emperor Shin-nnng about 2700 B. C. The limit to the successful cultivation of wheat is not determined so much by tho cold of winter as by the temperature of sum- mer, 57'2 being the minimum mean tempera- ture in which it will mature. The southern limits vary between 20 and 25" N. and S. lati- tude, though at a sufficient elevation it may be grown near the equator. Wheat is largely cul- tivated in most European countries; some which a few years ago were exporters do not now raise enough for their own consumption ; the principal wheat-exporting countries at pres- ent, besides the United States, are Russia, Den- mark, Hungary, Turkey, and Chili. In the United States wheat growing has regularly ex- tended westward ; in some of the older states an improvident course of agriculture exhausted the land until remunerative crops could no longer be raised; in the lack of a system of rotation the soil became stocked with tho seeds of weeds, and the increase of destructive in- sects added to the difficulties which made it necessary to seek new land ; but where better farming prevailed, the crop is still profitably grown. Tho new prairie soil of the western states allows the crop to be raised without the expense for fertilizers to which the eastern far- mer is subjected, though this is in great mea- sure offset by the cost of transporting western grain to market. The chief wheat-growing states and their production in 1873 were: Iowa, 34,600,000 bushels; Illinois, 28,417,000; Minnesota, 28,056,000 ; Wisconsin, 26,822,000 ; California, 21,504,000; Indiana, 20,832,000; Ohio, 18,567,000; Pennsylvania, 15,548,000; Michigan, 14,214,000; Missouri, 11,927,000; Tennessee, 7,414,000; Kentucky, 7,225,000; Now York, 7,047,000; Virginia, 5,788,000; Maryland, 5,262,000; Kansas, 4,830,000; Ne- braska, 8,584,000; Oregon, 8,127,000; North Carolina, 2,795,000; West Virginia, 2,657,000 ; Georgia, 2,170,000; and New Jersey, 1,948,- 000. The total production of the United States in 1874 was 809,102,700 bushels, from 24,967,- 027 acres, averaging 12'8 bushels to the acre. Nothing in the history of our agriculture is more striking than the remarkable increase of wheat growing on the Pacific coast, espe- cially in California, where the crop in 1850 was only 17,200 bushels, most of the grain consumed being at that time brought from Chili. Both soil and climate are most favor- able to its culture ; 2,000 to 4,000 acres is a moderate sizo for a wheat farm, and those ten times as largo are not rare. The climate is so rainless in summer that the bags of grain may be stacked up in the open field for weeks, without fear of injury. Probably not more than a dozen varieties are in general cultiva- tion in this country, though each is apt to have several local names, and a variety if long cultivated in one district may seem much un- like the same that has been grown for several years in a different locality. New sorts are frequently offered as superior in productive- ness to all others ; but every good farmer knows that the more productive the wheat, the better must be the soil. Spring wheat is sown and harvested the same year, while winter wheat is sown in autumn, usually in September, when it germinates, and the plant grows until stopped by cold weather ; it re-