CULTURE OF WHEAT AND OATS. 



By B. W. Kilgore, J. L. Burgess and F. T. Meacham. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The object of this bulletin is not only to report the progress of the 

 work done in testing different varieties of wheat, oats and rye, but 

 also to call attention to and create a greater interest in the possibilities 

 along the line of grain production that lie within easy reach of the 

 farmers in many parts of the State. We hope the day is not far dis- 

 tant when we shall be able to sell wheat and oats rather than buy 

 these cereals for home consumption. 



Every farmer knows that all of our soils are not equally well suited 

 to wheat production ; that we have some soils on which wheat culture 

 should not be attempted. But there are areas of soils in the Coastal 

 Plain, Piedmont and Mountainous sections of the State on which 

 wheat culture may be carried on with profit. The Piedmont has a 

 larger area adapted to wheat than the other sections of the State, but, 

 since farming, in the last analysis, is a business in which the different 

 departments must stand or fall on an economic basis, we cannot en- 

 courage the growth of wheat in one section and discourage it in an- 

 other, because it is always wise to grow the crop that pays best ; and 

 while some soils are much better suited to the production of cereals 

 than are others, there are conditions under which it may pay the 

 farmer better to grow wheat on the soils that lend themselves less 

 kindly to the production of this than to the production of some other 

 crop. 



In this connection we would urge the farmer to study the demands 

 of the local and the general markets and plan his crops with refer- 

 ence to the wants of the consumer. Be ever seeking to grow that 

 which pays best under the conditions existing in the locality. 



HISTORICAL NOTE OX WHEAT. 



Wheat is one of our oldest known cereals. It was a field crop 

 with the Greeks and Egyptians. A small-grained variety was grown 

 in Switzerland as early as the Stone Age and in China its cultivation 

 was common in 2700 B. C. The domestication of this plant is much 

 older than the history of man, as is evidenced by its presence in many 

 ancient monuments that antedate the Hebrew Scriptures. 



The original habitat of wheat is not certainly known, but is thought 

 to be the valley of the Euphrates in western Asia. 



