CHAPTER I 



INTRODUCTION 



Wheat is the world's greatest cereal crop. Both 

 corn and oats exceed wheat in bulk, but by weight 

 the four great cereals rank in the order of their 

 production as follows: Wheat, corn, oats, rice. 

 It may be of interest to observe that in bulk or 

 bushels oats ranks first, corn second, wheat third, 

 and rice fourth. But as a food for human con- 

 sumption, wheat ranks first, rice second, corn 

 third, and oats fourth. Rice and wheat were the 

 grains of the early eastern civilizations. Corn 

 was the great food plant of the natives of Central 

 and North America. Rice is today the chief food 

 of half of the people of the earth. 



THE WORLD'S PRODUCTION OF CEREALS 



In the United States the order of production is 

 in part reversed, corn ranking first, wheat second, 

 and oats third by weight; but in bulk, oats ranks 

 secorid and wheat third. Rice is grown to only a 

 limited extent in the United States but it is the 

 principal grain crop of China, India, Japan and 

 other Asiatic countries. The agricultural year 

 book gives the total yield of these grains in the 

 world and in the United States in 1910 as follows: 



(9) 



