12 WHEAT CULTURE. 



mate, and Barley (Hordeum) in a colder, than our 

 wheats. 



BOTANICAL ORIGIN. 



Botanical authors differ about as widely as do others as 

 to the origin or derivation of the wheat plant, Triticum. 

 Some of them maintain that wheat sprang from an in- 

 ferior grain or grass, and from that has been improved 

 by cultivation, up to the superior grain which we now 

 find it. Others contend that it was originally, and from 

 the beginning, a pure, absolute wheat, with all the char- 

 acteristics that it now presents, with increased excellence 

 attained by cultivation, in some varieties, as is the case 

 with horses, where the thorough-bred specimens show 

 superior points to the common farm horse. 



The former class contend that wheat is derived from 

 JEgilops ovata, a handsome grass, one to two feet high, 

 resembling wheat more than other grasses do, but more 

 like barley than wheat, and found in the countries bor- 

 dering on the Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas. It is 

 held that this grass simply, by good culture, has resulted 

 in what is now our wheat. But in writing this little 

 work it is not our aim or province to settle these disputed 

 questions, in which the doctors disagree. 



Another beautiful characteristic of this chief of the 

 cereals is its wonderful susceptibility to modifying in- 

 fluences, resulting, under intelligent management of 

 growers, in the production of new varieties, adapted to 

 great differences of circumstances, and rewarding the 

 cultivators with grains suited to their peculiar situations 

 and necessities. Ten or a dozen species of Triticum are 

 mentioned by some writers ; while others refer all our 

 cultivated wheats to a single species, with hundreds of 

 varieties. 



Great changes in wheat are effected by two processes, 

 that of hybridizing, and what is called the pedigree sys- 



