The World's Commercial Products 



A POOR YIELD OWING TO BAD CONDITIONS 



WHEAT GROWN UNDER GOOD CONDITIONS 



the best known being " couch grass " or " twitch," which is a very troublesome weed in 

 cultivated land. But it has its uses, inasmuch as its long, creeping, underground stems give it the 

 power of binding sand so that it can be planted to arrest the progress of sand dunes, to hold 

 together embankments, etc. These wild " wheat grasses " are, however, of no value as food 

 plants, yielding but little grain. On the other hand, the cultivated species which, for the time, 

 may be collectively spoken of as wheat, are of the greatest importance, yielding the most 

 valuable cereal in the world. Wheats have been cultivated by man from time immemorial, 

 and nothing is now known of the original wild forms from which they are descended. In old 

 legends and ancient manuscripts wheat is spoken of as familiarly as at the present day. 

 Nor do we know with any certainty in which country it was first found ; but it seems 

 probable that Central Asia was the original home of the wild forms from which the cultivated 

 species have sprung. 



Although we have used the name " wheat " above as including all the cultivated varieties 

 of the genus Triticum, this is not quite correct, and before proceeding farther it will be well 

 to give a few notes concerning the various species. They fall into three chief groups : — 



1. Small spelt, or one-grained spelt (Triticum monococcum). 



2. Wheat, including spelt and rice spelt (T. sativum). 



3. Polish wheat (T. Polonicum). 



(1) Small spelt or one-grained spelt is usually characterised by each of the little branchlets 

 of which the ear is composed, containing only one grain, whereas in the other wheats they 

 contain two or more grains. This plant can live in very poor soils, and in stony places not 

 suited to ordinary wheat. As might be expected, it does not grow into such a large plant, the 

 straw being usually not more than from eighteen inches to two feet in height, and the yield 

 of corn is comparatively small. Spain is the chief country in which it is grown, but it is 

 sometimes cultivated in France, Germany, and Switzerland, principally in mountainous 



