WHEAT-GROWING AND ITS PROBLEMS 287 



like barley. The ripe grain adheres to the chaff and does not 

 detach itself as in the commonly cultivated wheats. Einkorn 

 is among the oldest of the wheats : Schliemann found it in the 

 ruins of the second town of Troy (c. 2000 b.c.) ; it also occurs 

 in neolithic remains in Switzerland and Hungary ; it was 

 known to the Greeks, but does not appear to have been culti- 

 vated by the Romans. Though still grown in parts of Spain, 

 France, Switzerland, Wurtemberg, Thuringia, and the Balkan 

 Peninsula, it is in no sense a modern bread wheat ; further, the 

 yield is so small that it can only be grown economically on 

 poor soils. But it possesses one valuable characteristic that 

 is likely to bring it into prominence in wheat-breeding experi- 

 ments in the future — it is exceptionally resistant to rust. This 

 wheat is now generally admitted to have arisen from Triticum 

 cegilopioidcs, a wild form ranging from the Balkan Peninsula to 

 Syria and Upper Mesopotamia. Dr. Stapf points out that the 

 only obvious change is the great reduction, amounting almost 

 to complete suppression, of the conspicuous long white hairs 

 of the spindle in the wild form : other domesticated wheats 

 have altered in the same way. 



The second division comprises four groups that are now 

 very distinct — the Hard or Macaroni wheats {T. diiruni)^ 

 Emmer (7". dicoccum), the English or Rivet wheats (7". tiirgidiim), 

 and the Polish wheats {T. polouicmn). Macaroni wheat has 

 three or four fertile flowers to the spikelet, and has long bearded 

 ears and hard pointed grains. It has been found in several 

 Egyptian tombs, but not in the prehistoric remains of Central 

 Europe. It occurs in Abyssinia and in India, accompanied in 

 both cases by Emmer and forms intermediate between the 

 two, and is grown in the European countries round the 

 Mediterranean. It is used for the manufacture of macaroni 

 and for blending with other wheats to make flour. Emmer is 

 a bearded wheat, with tv/o grains to the spikelet. It was one 

 of the common cereals of ancient Egypt and occurs in quan- 

 tities in Egyptian tombs of c. 2000 b.c, as well as in the Swiss 

 lake dwellings of the Bronze age. It is cultivated in a few 

 districts in South Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Servia, 

 and in India and Abyssinia ; it has also been introduced into 

 Canada and the United States. T. turgidum (English or Rivet 

 wheat) was another oi the cereals of ancient Egypt, but little 

 is known of its early history. The grains are large, short, 



