4 OUR FARM CROPS. 



the area where wheat is most commonly cultivated. 

 Egypt, Algeria, and the countries running down to the 

 shores of the Mediterranean, are the principal wheat dis- 

 tricts of Africa; while the present produce of Canada and 

 the United States has already shown us the wellnigh 

 illimitable area of wheat-producing soils which America 

 possesses, and which will be gradually brought into culti- 

 vation as its surface becomes occupied, and its population 

 increases. In Australia and New Zealand the soil and the 

 climate are both admirably adapted to the growth of wheat. 

 The beautiful samples of Australian wheat sent to the 

 Great Exhibition in 1851, and to the Paris Exhibition in 

 1855, told their own tale as to quality of produce. 



The botanist tells us that the genus of plants yielding the 

 various kinds of wheat is called TRITICUM, and that it 

 belongs to the natural order GRAMINE.E (grasses), of which 

 it is the most prominent and important member. 



This name triticum is, according to Yarro, a Roman 

 agricultural writer, derived from "tritum" ground or 

 rubbed, because the fruit or seed in its preparation as a 

 food for man requires the process of grinding or tritu- 

 ration. We learn, too, from Varro and other authors 

 of that period, the place which wheat occupied in the 

 agriculture of the Romans, and the great pains and con- 

 sideration they bestowed upon its cultivation. Indeed, 

 many of their rules and recommendations form good com- 

 ments upon the negligent tillage of our own times, and 

 might be consulted and followed with advantage by most 

 of us at the present day. The Romans appear to have 

 been acquainted with only two species of wheat, the tri- 

 ticum or ordinary wheat, and the far or spelt wheat ; the 

 first they recommended to be sown on good, warm, loamy 

 soils, while they considered the other best adapted for 

 cold clay soils, and for high and exposed districts. Their 

 rules for getting the land into proper condition preparatory 



