WHEAT 137 



work to raise and harvest each bushel of wheat. 

 When the reaper was invented it took three hours 

 of labor for each bushel, and to-day it takes only 

 ten minutes. This is what machinery has done for 

 the farmers. 



How Much We Eat. It is said that, on the aver- 

 age, every person in the United States eats about 

 five bushels of wheat in a year. Five bushels of 

 wheat make a barrel of flour, and a barrel of flour 

 turned over to the baker makes about two hundred 

 fifty loaves of bread. 



Other Uses of Wheat. Most of the American 

 wheat is made into bread, but there is also a great 

 amount used for breakfast foods. Some wheat is 

 fed to stock, especially to poultry. Wheat, bran, 

 and middlings in great quantities are bought at the 

 mills and fed to cattle. Macaroni is made from 

 wheat, and so is starch, which is used for paste or 

 sizing. The straw is used for feeding and bedding 

 cattle and for making straw hats and bonnets. 



QUESTIONS 



(1) Why do not all people eat wheat bread? (2) 

 How was wheat first harvested and threshed in America? 



(3) Why can Europe raise wheat as cheaply as we do? 



(4) Does corn grow as far north as wheat? (5) Give 

 reason. (6) Why should fall wheat ground be plowed 

 early in the summer? (7) Name some of the enemies 

 of wheat. (8) Why is the modern wheat-header suited 

 only to dry regions? 



For exercises, problems and experiments, refer to the 

 Appendix. 



