WHEAT (AS. hirmte, Coth. hwaitris, OHO. yecizzi, tier. Weizen, wheat, from AS. 1001, “oth. huTits, OHO. -min, Ger. weiss, white; connected with Lith. szeuityli, to brighten. ()Church Slay. srail, light, Av. Sparta, Skt. s1r11(4, white, from vin, to be white). The best. known and the most valuable of all the cereal crops. Under the name wheat are included nearly all the forms of the genus Triticum producing seeds, or grain used for human food. The original home of wheat is unknown, hilt the evidence at hand seems to indicate that it is probably a native of Western Asia. The cultivation of wheat antedates his tory, as the most ancient monuments shim that at the time of their erection it had already been domesticated. The ancient Egyptians and t1reeks attributed its origin to some of their deities, among them to Demeter (Latin, Ceres), the god dess of agriculture. It was cultivated as early as the Stone Age by the lake-dwellers of Switzer land, and in China, where it was considered a direct gift of heaven, it was grown 2700 years before the Christian Era. It is one of the five species annually sown by the Chinese in a pub lie ceremony. Wheat was not grown in America prior to Columbus's discovery. The hypothesis that cultivated wheat was a modification of Tritieum cmatum, a grass of the Mediterranean regions and of Western Asia, led to some inter esting studies of the subject by French and Eng lish investigators from about 1840 to 1560. While this wild grass underwent considerable change when cultivated for a series of years. and while the results of this work further show that blossoms of _Egilops can be fecundated with wheat pollen, there was neither evidence nor indication that this grass could ever have been developed into wheat. Although none of the various species of wheat known to agriculture are found in a wild state, some botanists consider that the species of one-grained wheat (Tritieum 911011000C ell ) has a wild representative which occurs on the plains of Bceotia and in Servia.
Wheat was an important crop in ancient Egypt and Palestine, and it continues to be a most important crop in our own days in all the tem perate parts of the globe. it is cultivated to a
considerable extent in India, and vast areas in the United States and Canada are admirably adapted to it. Wide regions in South America are equally suitable, and wheat of the finest quality is produced in Australia. In tire torrid zone wheat does not succeed except in elevated situations, and although extensively grown in some cases in warm climates, as in California, Egypt, and India, the greater part of the world's supply is obtained in regions of cold winters.
Wheat is a hardy plant. and when covered by snow will endure even quite severe freezing. It is successfully cultivated from 39° to 60° north latitude. and from the Tropic of Capricorn to 40° smith latitude. Its cultivation does not extend so far north as that of barley. oats, or rye. It requires a mean temperature of at least 55° Fahr. for 3 or 4 months of the year. As it is an annual, its capacity of enduring the cold of winter is of importance only in connection with growing whiter wbeat, which is sown in the fall. The quality of the grain varies nmeh in different moils and climates. and particular varieties are also distinguished by differences in quality as well as by ex term! characters. Wheat grown in eom paratively dry climates is superior in quality to that grown in humid regions. as is shown by the difference in quality of the bard spring wheats of the Dakotas, fur instance, and the soft winter wheats produced on the l'acitia coast. A prevalence of dry weather with bright sunshine from the time the plants begin to head until they are ripe is everywhere of the greatest fin portanee. The different varieties are classified by farmers as spring and winter wheats, bearded and beardless or bald varieties, soft and hard wheats, and also according to the color of the grain, as red, white, amber, etc. In eonsepienee of long cultivation in various climates and on different soils, the varieties of wheat are vely nu merous, 11101'0 so than in any other kind of grain. New varieties, the results of plant breeding and selection earrird on by farmers, seedsmen, and the agricultural experiment stations, arc con tinually coming into notice.