CHAPTER XVI 

 WHEAT IN ASIA 



THAT Asia, the home of early civilization, should 

 be important as a wheat producer is to be expected. 

 Wheat is the most universally grown cereal on that 

 continent. To its early culture there and the favor 

 in which it was held, this grain owes its high place 

 in history and literature. Asia has presented 

 wheat to the world as symbolic of goodness and 

 prosperity. 



Though wheat is produced in nearly every coun- 

 try of Asia, only two Asiatic countries are impor- 

 tant contributors to the wheat of commerce. The 

 reason is twofold : first, the dense population 

 which prevails over much of the territory uses the 

 local output ; and second, the primitive methods 

 of production which are still in vogue limit the 

 total yield. In China, Palestine, and the valley 

 of the Euphrates,- wheat is produced by nearly the 

 same methods as were used two thousand years 

 ago. It is a singular fact that the only two coun- 

 tries in Asia which export wheat are the two which 

 have most strongly felt European influence, - 



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