Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/611

 WHEAT 587 mains dormant during the winter, and renews its growth in the spring, ripening about mid- summer. These groups are subdivided into white and red or amber varieties, and these again into bald and bearded wheat. Among the spring varieties, the China, also called tes wheat (as it is saic to have come from a grain found in a box of tea), Medi- terranean spring, and Canada club are leading kinds. Of winter wheats the white varieties are most esteemed; the most promi- nent of these are: the Diehl, bald and early ripening; the Clauson or Seneca, with a red chaff and white grain; Boughton (often called Oregon), white Michigan, white Mediterra- nean, and Soule's. Among the red or amber varieties are the red Mediterra- nean, one of the best for ordinary soils, the amber, the Fultz, the Wit- ter, and others. Formerly spring wheats brought a lower price than the others, but since the recent introduction of what is called the " new process " of grinding, in which the grain is first deprived of its outer cov- ering, they are preferred for some kinds of flour, and bring as much or more than the winter kinds. Wheat in a rotation is sown on a turned clover sod, or on land which has been heavily manured the previous year for a corn or root crop ; fresh stable manure is objectionable, but artificial fertilizers are used, and lime, where there is much organic matter in the soil, is beneficial ; careful cultivators take great pains to clean their seed wheat from oth- er seeds, and to get rid of all the light kernels ; where smut is apprehended, the seed is wetted with a solution of sulphate of copper or strong brine, to kill the fungus spores. The seed is sown broadcast, or preferably by means of a drill, which deposits it in rows and covers it ; when sown broadcast it is harrowed or ploughed in. In spring the winter wheat is harrowed. The weeds most troublesome to wheat in this country are the cockle (lychnis githago), of the pink family, and chess or cheat (bromus seca- linus), which is sometimes so abundant that ignorant persons believe it to be degenerate wheat. In some of the New York wheat- growing counties gromwell (lithotpermum Winter Wheat Bald and Bearded. arceme), there called red-root, is one of the most serious obstacles to the farmer. Rust and smut are minute vegetable forms which often cause serious damage to the stalk and gram. (See FUNGI.) Wheat is liable to be injured by several insects. (See HESSIAN FLY WEEVIL, WHEAT FLY, and WHEAT Mora) The history of most of the wheat-growing portions of this country shows a regular de- crease in the yield ; counties in the state of New York in which the average yield at the beginning of the century was 20 to 30 bushels to the acre, now return 5 to 7 bushels ; in the fertile soil of Ohio the average diminished in 60 years from 26 bushels to half that amount ; and so long as there remain new lands to be cultivated this will probably continue to be the case. That this decrease is due to the lack of a proper system of agriculture is shown by the fact that in England, where the land has been under cultivation for centuries, the av- erage yield is 36 bushels to the acre. Seeds of wheat retain their vitality from 3 to 7 years ; the stories of " mummy wheat," which is said to have germinated after remaining thousands of years in the tombs of Egypt, are now dis- credited ; the cunning Arabs have even sup- plied credulous travellers with mummied maize grains and dahlia tubers, neither of which were known before the discov- ery of America. Besides triticum vulgar e, a few other species are cultiva- ted in some countries, but have not been found desi- rable in this. The Egyp- tian wheat (T. turgidum) has heavy heads which bend over to one side, and hairy spikelets ; forms of it have been somewhat cultivated in England, on low lands, but it yields an inferior flour. The one- grained wheat (T. mono- coccutri), also called St. Pe- ter's corn, has but one fer- tile floret in the spikelet, the grain of which ripen- ing gives the head much the appearance of barley ; its cultivation is confined io the mountainous por- tions of Europe. Spelt wheat, or spelt (T. spelta), sears a similar name in several European langua- ges, and is much cultiva- las a flat spike, which eadily breaks up at the ^oints, and the grain is adherent to the palet or husk ; it is only rarely grown in this coun- 1. Spelt (Triticum gpelU). 2. 8t. Peter's Corn (Triti- cum monococcum).
 * ed on the continent; it
 * ry by Europeans, who have been accustomed
 * o it at home. Wheat properly stands at the