BREAD PLANTS 23 



THE KINDS OF WHEAT 



Between two and three hundred varieties of 

 wheat were selected from a thousand varieties 

 tested by the' United States Department of 

 Agriculture, as best adapted to conditions in differ- 

 ent parts of this country. The vast number of 

 varieties grown the world over prove that wheat 

 is one of the oldest plants in cultivation. History 

 tells the same thing. In the accounts of the 

 childhood of many nations, the growing of wheat 

 is fully dwelt upon, and the making of white bread 

 from the ground grain. 



The Lake-dwellers, of the early Stone Age, 

 left behind them in their strange, prehistoric 

 habitations, grains of wheat half the size of modern 

 varieties. Researches have found four different 

 species represented by the stores uncovered in 

 Switzerland. 



Wheat was the staple crop of the ancients in 

 Egypt and Palestine. The Chinese raised it for 

 more than three thousand years. No wonder that 

 the botanists have given up hope of finding the 

 wild species from which the cultivated forms have 

 sprung. In all probability, it is no longer growing 

 wild anywhere. However, it is believed that the 

 original home of the wild wheat was in the valley 



