Samples of Foreign Wheat. 53 



casion may require, which sometimes does not occur for 

 several years : the grain is then found as good as when it 

 was stored. In Turkey, I had no opportunity of deter- 

 mining the quality of the flour which this wheat would 

 produce, as their millstones are of too soft a nature to 

 grind it completely, which of course would prevent the 

 flour from being well boulted and exhibiting its true co- 

 lour: the bread made of it under these circumstances was 

 rather dark, but very sweet. It is however more gene- 

 rally mixed with a softer wheat of which you have a spe- 

 cimen herewith marked no. 2. The proportions vary ac- 

 cording to circumstances. At Malta 1 understood they 

 were four sixths of the hard,and two sixths of the soft 

 wheat ; thus mixed, the bread becomes whiter. 



No. 3. is a sample of the two kinds as they are gen- 

 erally mixed, and sold in the Smyrna market for family 

 use, 



The soil in which they are produced is generally very 

 light, and frequently calcareous, and is merely turned up 

 by a slight wooden plough drawn by oxen or Buffalos. 

 It is therefore probable, that under good cultivation, the 

 produce would be more abundant and the grain much 

 larger 



The season for sowing corresponds, nearly with our 

 own : but their winters are less rigorous and wetter, 

 the rains commencing about the latter end of September, 

 and continuing with occasional intermissions of a few 

 days, till March or April, after which there is no rain for 

 several months. It is this difference which in my opi- 

 nion forms the principal obstacle to our cultivating for 

 eingn grapes and other Eastern fruit. 



