WHEAT 



127 



before Christ lived, and the Chinese said that it was 

 given to them direct from heaven. 



Wheat in America. Wheat was the first grain 

 brought to our country by the Jamestown colony 

 in 1607. These pioneers cut down forest trees to 

 build a fort, and in the cleared places they sowed 



Fig. 6'.'. i iic reap hook, an ancient kxx jor napin^/ (jrmn. 



wheat. The first crops were very poor, but they 

 wanted white bread, so they kept planting a little 

 more each year. The crops were cut with the reap 

 hook, or sickle, which is merely a knife with a 

 curved, blade (Fig. 69). It was threshed by being 

 trod u])on by horses and oxen. 



The World's Crop. Our country does not produce 

 so large a part of the world's wheat crop as it does 

 of the corn. Europe raises twice as much wheat as 

 does North America. European countries get twice 



