CHAPTER XV 

 SMALL GRAINS 



Our rural Ancestors, with little blest, 

 Patient of labor when the end was rest, 

 Indulg'd the day that hous'd their annual grain, 

 With feasts, and offerings, and a thankful strain. 



POPE Second Book of Horace. 



THE grain crops are sometimes called cereals from the old 

 Roman name. This term usually includes corn, wheat, oats, rye, 

 barley, rice and buckwheat. Flax, when grown for seed, is some- 

 times called a grain crop, but is seldom classed as a cereal. Several 

 of the plants of this group, wheat, rye, oats, barley, corn and 

 rice are members of the grass family. These are true grasses 

 in their characteristics. The grain plants have similar culture. 

 They are usually sown broadcast or in drills and covered to a depth 

 of about one inch, depending on the texture and moisture of the 

 soil. The roots are fibrous and the plants usually send up several 

 stems, except in the case of flax, which sends up one stem from 

 the seed. 



WHEAT 



This crop has been grown for grain since prehistoric times. 

 It has probably always been the leading small grain crop of the 

 world. About four billion bushels of wheat are now annually pro- 

 duced in the world. Of this amount America produces about one- 

 fifth, and Europe produced more than one-half. The grain is 

 chiefly used in the form of flour as human food. The by-products, 

 including bran and middlings, are used as stock feed. For the 

 making of bread, wheat flour is used the world over. Such bread 

 is called "white bread" to distinguish it from bread made from 

 darker flours, such as barley, rye, millet and others. The dark 

 breads are most extensively used in certain foreign countries. 



New soils are best for wheat. As wheat soils become worn out 

 the profit from the crop is much less and other lines of farming 

 are undertaken. This causes the wheat area to move on to new 

 sections. In more permanent forms of agriculture the crop is 

 grown in systematic rotations without serious reduction in yields. 

 Such fixed rotations for wheat are practiced in the old world and 



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