nOW TO GROW GOOD CORN. 1G3 



CHAPTER XXV. 



wheat: its origin and acclimatization. 



It is a popular belief that wheat, in a state fit for 

 food, was a direct gift to man, and handed down to 

 him unaltered in form, except in so far as relates to 

 varieties ; but if we consider how varied are the 

 details of this plant, how very different from each 

 other are the more remote varieties, and yet how 

 easy it is to fill up the links on the one hand, or to 

 arrive at equally distinct and yet new forms on the 

 other, we can only conclude that wheat, like most, 

 if not all, our vegetable esculents, is but a derivative 

 plant obtained from a wild form of grass, and in 

 very early times brought into cultivation because 

 of the facilities for change which it was capable of 

 undergoing. 



Nowhere is wheat, as such, found wild ; for, 

 although its grain has been cultivated in all parts 

 of the World, its scattered seeds cannot maintain a 

 position for any length of time ; for, as it has been 

 obtained by cultivation, so its derived status can only 

 be maintained by careful culture, without which 

 there seems reason to believe that cereal wheat 

 would indeed become extinct. 



Many botanists had arrived at these or kindred 

 views from observation and reasoning upon the sub- 

 ject, but it was not until a comparatively recent 

 period that we possessed any direct evidence derived 

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