INDUSTRIAL REVIEW 191 



his wheat into the garner." These references 

 prove that wheat was cultivated and was an im- 

 portant food at least among the peoples of ancient 

 Egypt and Palestine. 



The accounts of Strabo, the Greek historian, 

 and of Lippert, a Chaldean writer, point to the 

 valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates as the original 

 home of wheat. The most widely accepted theory 

 holds that there it was first domesticated. From 

 this center it spread over western Asia, Africa, 

 Europe, and then to the New World. 



Wheat in America. - - So far as is known, wheat 

 was not grown in America before the discovery 

 by Columbus. It is said that a few grains were 

 found in some rice which was used as food by 

 Cortez and that these were sown before 1530. 

 Missionaries introduced wheat into California in 

 1769. Gosnold, in 1602, brought some wheat into 

 the eastern part of the continent, where it was 

 planted on the Elizabeth Islands off the southern 

 coast of Massachusetts. Although wheat was 

 first cultivated in Virginia in 1607, the region of 

 its first commercial importance in North America 

 was northern Maryland and southern Pennsyl- 

 vania. Baltimore was the first great wheat-ex- 

 porting city of the North American colonies. 



Motive Power in Wheat Production. Man. 



- Man's own energy was the only power used in 



cultivation for a long time. To us this seems a 



