WHEAT. 



171 



was brought into Quito by a Fleming, Father Joae Rixi, a monk 

 of the order of St. Francis. I was shown in the Convent of St. 

 Francis, the vessel in which the first seed is said to have come from 

 Europe. 



In Mexico, where the ground can be irrigated, and this, all things 

 else being the same, always yields the best crops, wheat is watered 

 at twoditferent periods — when it has sprung and when it is shooting 

 into ear. According to M. de Humboldt, who has collected so much 

 that is interesting upon the agriculture of New Spain, the richness 

 of the harvest is truly surprising; irrigated soils often yield from 

 40 to 60 times the seed ; 16 for 1 is reckoned a middling crop, and, 

 taking the whole of Mexico, the mean produce may be estimated at 

 from 22 to 25 for 1. 



The cultivation of wheat is especially lucrative in districts which 

 enjoy a mean temperature of from 18" to 19" C, (65" to 67° F. :) yet 

 it may be pursued amid plantations of coffee-trees and sugar-canes, 

 although I doubt whether it can there be extremely productive. The 

 extreme limits of the growth of wheat in the Cordilleras, according 

 to my own observations, correspond with the mean temperatures of 

 from 12'' to 23.5° C. (54 to 75° F.) M. Codazzi estimates at 37 for 

 1 the mean produce of wheat in Venezuela. 



The hectolitre of wheat in France (22.009 gallons, something less 

 than a sack of three bushels English) is held to weigh, on an ave- 

 rage, 169.4 lbs., or 61.6, say 6H lbs. per bushel; but this weight 

 varies according to the quality of the grain between 56 and 64 lbs. 

 the bushel. 



The following is a table of the mean produce of the wheat crop 

 in different countries, from documents that may be relied on : 



Localities. 



Germany : Moeglin • 



Lavanthal 



Saalfelden 



Lombard]/ : irrigated lands 



" non-irrigated lands 



Average of Venetian Lombardy 



England: the best soils 



" average 



Brabant and Flanders 



France : Alsace (after tobacco) 



" " Bechelbronn 



Environs of Paris 



Oise 



America : (East of the Alleghanies) 



'* rich lands 



" middling ditto 



Mississippi : rich lands 



" middling ditto 



Venezuela (Valley of Aragua) 



" temperate regions 



