SMALL SPELT 171 



There is no proof that T. monococcum was known to the ancient 

 Egyptians, nor is there any reference to it among the Roman writers on 

 agriculture, but ri<f>rj mentioned by Aristotle, Theophrastus, and other 

 early Greek authors appears to have been this cereal. 



On account of its poor quality, lateness in ripening, and insignificant 

 yield in comparison with other wheats, its cultivation is now very re- 

 stricted. Nevertheless the awns and thick glumes protect it from the 

 attacks of birds, and its power of resisting frost and rust, and the fact that 

 it will grow without manure on poor sandy, chalky, and rocky soils where 

 better wheats fail, adapt it to the needs of the inhabitants of barren 

 mountainous districts. 



From very early times it has been cultivated by primitive peoples in 

 remote districts of Europe and Western Asia, and it is still grown in many 

 parts of Spain and to a lesser extent in Switzerland, France, Italy, 

 Germany (Wiirtemberg and Thuringia), Herzegovina, Greece, Macedonia, 

 and in the Eastern Caucasus. It has also been met with in cultivation in 

 Asia Minor, but there are no records of its occurrence in India, China, 

 or on the continent of Africa, and it does not appear to be cultivated in 

 Serbia or Bulgaria, of which countries its wild prototype is a native. 



Small Spelt is mainly utilised in its husked state instead of barley 

 as fodder corn for cattle and horses. In lesser amount the true grain 

 freed from the tough glumes is used in soup and gruel in place of " pearl " 

 barley or groats. 



It has also been employed in the manufacture of beer and vinegar. 



The flour obtained from it is yellow or brownish in colour, and makes 

 a good flavoured though dark brown bread. 



Both winter and spring forms are known, the former being perhaps 

 the most frequently cultivated. In Europe the winter forms are sown in 

 September, spring forms early in March, about 72 Ibs. of husked grain 

 per acre being needed. The crop is harvested in August or the first half 

 of September, the yield is very variable, from 8 to 16 hectolitres per hectare 

 (about 320-640 Ibs. per acre) being obtained in poor mountainous regions ; 

 on good soils more than 80 hectolitres per hectare have been recorded. 



The ears of T. monococcum are very brittle, and it is stated that the 

 plant sometimes sows itself among other crops from which it is difficult 

 to extirpate it when once established ; it was reported in 1871 as a 

 troublesome weed in cornfields round Montpellier in France. 1 



GENERAL CHARACTERS OF T. monococcum, L. 



Small Spelt is strikingly distinct from other cultivated wheats in its 

 stiff erect habit, slender straw, and characteristic pale yellowish-green tint. 



1 Bull. Sue. Hot. France, p. 173 (1871). 



