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deemed of sucli importance that its praises were sung by- 

 poets ; philosophers wrote essays upon it, and it received the 

 solicitous attention of legislators." In planting their colony 

 on that island, they of course carried with it the husbandry of 

 Rome, but we find that wheat was not consumed by all classes 

 then or for some time later. 



" In 1534, in the first English work on Agriculture by Sir 

 Anthony Fitzherbert, the consumption of wheaten bread was 

 said to be almost exclusively by the higher ranks of society, 

 while the laboring classes were fed chiefly on rye, barley and 

 oaten bread," as is the case in the northern countries of Europe 

 at the present time. At that time farmers were restricted in 

 the amount of land planted with wheat, it being considered too 

 exhausting a crop. The same year Henry VIII. caused an 

 " assay of bread " to be made from one quarter of wheat. In 

 1552, under Queen Mary, export of wheat from Great Britain 

 was not allowed when the price was over 6s. 9|d. per quar- 

 ter. In 1G03, under James I, the price was raised to £1, 6s. 

 8d. per quarter. 



The first introduction of wheat into America was in Mexico 

 by chance ; a slave having found a few kernels of a strange 

 grain among some rice, showed it to Cortez, his master, who, 

 knowing it to be wheat, ordered them to be planted, and the 

 result proved how well American soil was adapted for its 

 growth, and to this day one of the finest wheat valleys in the 

 world is said to be near the Mexican Capital. 



From Mexico a few grains were carried to Peru by a Span- 

 ish lady and planted at Lima, the entire product for several 

 successive crops being used for seed. In Quito, Equador, it 

 was introduced by a Monk of the Order of St. Francis, and 

 the jar which contained the seed is said to be still preserved 

 by the Monks in the greatest veneration. In California, wheat 

 was first introduced and cultivated by the Spanish Jesuits, and 

 this year that State and Oregon has produced 38,000,000 

 bushels. In eastern North America it was introduced with the 

 English, Dutch and French colonies, when they started their 



