ARTICLES OF FOOD. 41 



mon food ; with us, rye is in general use, while barley and oats 

 are seldom eaten, 



America has given to the world two most important products, 

 maize and potatoes, of a value as a cheap, wholesome and 

 palatable food, beyond the power of calculation. Maize is but 

 little consumed in most parts of Europe, even by those com- 

 pelled to economy in their selection of food — it is not a popular 

 food there. The reader of British agricultural works, remarks 

 witli surprise, the small space devoted to this grain. 



Without question, of all vegetable productions, indeed of all 

 substances used as food by human beings, the first in dignity 

 and importance is wheat. It has been the corn of civilization 

 from remote antiquity. Other breadstufifs have multiplied more 

 abundantly, and have, at different times and places, been much 

 in favor. But wheat yet retains the high esteem it had when 

 the granaries of Egypt supplied the brethren of Joseph. The 

 track of civilization may be traced from that era by its culture. 



The forms of wheat, other than flour, are numerous — macca- 

 roni, vermicelli, caligari and other pastes, semolini and soujee 

 or manacroup, and various delicate farinacious preparations are 

 known to commerce. Tliere is a beauty in wheat that com- 

 mends it to popular esteem. 



Fashion and fancy govern where they should not. Wheat 

 growers complain that they are restricted by the demands of 

 the market, to kinds of wheat by no means the best. Flour is 

 judged by its whiteness and by the beauty of its bread, rather 

 than its intrinsic nutritive qualities. 



In another respect, wheat is entitled to the highest considera- 

 tion. In most enlightened nations of the world, and from a 

 remote period, it has had, beyond all other crops, a political 

 importance. Webster said that a short crop of wheat in Eng- 

 land, effects the exchanges of the world. The loss to this 

 country, of absolute wealth, by the impoverishment of its 

 wheat lands, is to be counted in hundreds of millions. The 

 strong arm of governments has been raised to arrest this evil. 

 War and diplomacy are no longer their sole business, but they 

 give their energies to the raising of wheat — the governments of 

 the world are turning farmers. No crop requires more art in 

 its culture than wheat, and to none have been so much directed 

 6 



