WHEAT AND OATS 



INTRODUCTION 



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

 work done in testing different varieties of wheat and oats but also 

 to call attention to, and stimulate a greater interest in, the possibilities 

 along the line of cereal 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 

 them 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 some 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 can not encourage the growth of wheat in one section and discour- 

 age it in another, because it is always wise to grow the crop that PAYS 

 BEST ; and while some soils are much better suited to the production 

 of wheat and oats than are others, there are conditions under which 

 it may pay the farmer better to grow these cereals on the soils that 

 lend themselves less kindly to the production of this than to the pro- 

 duction of some other crop. 



HISTORICAL NOTE ON 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. 



Its ease of cultivation, nutritive value and ease of preparation for 

 food, its almost exclusive possession of the elements necessary to make 

 a light, porous bread, and its ability to adapt itself to widely different 

 soil and climatic conditions has made it one of the principal foods of 

 man. While the wheat crop has long been important in countries oc- 

 cupied by civilized people, its use is becoming more and more pro- 

 nounced as civilization advances. Indeed, wheat is the principal edible 

 cereal of most civilized countries. 



Wheat, unlike the potato, corn and tobacco, is a naturalized plant 

 in America, its cultivation having been commenced here some time 

 after Columbus reached our shores. 



