A STUDY OF WHEAT. 



Wheat has been cultivated from the earliest antiquity, and now 

 furnishes the principal bread-stuff of all civilized countries. It is 

 not known to what country it originally belonged; some even have 

 claimed that it was planted upon the earth at the time of the crea- 

 tion. It is certain that it 'was cultivated in Egypt nearly two thou- 

 sand years before the Christian Era as we read in the Old Testa- 

 ment, and Chinese history tells us wheat was introduced into China 

 2,700 B. C. by one of the Chinese emperors. In every country 

 where wheat would grow at all, it has steadily increased in propor- 

 tion as the country has become civilized and settled. Hostile 

 armies have aided in transporting it from one country to another, 

 and Mexico owes its first introduction of wheat to the brutal con- 

 queror Cortez. It was introduced and cultivated in Peru under the 

 direction of the Spanish lady Maria de Escobar, and the North 

 American Colonies began to cultivate it at the earliest period of 

 their settlement. It was first sown on the Elizabeth Islands, of 

 Massachusetts, by Goshold, at the time he explored the coast, in 

 1602. It was sown in Virginia, together with other grains, in 1611; 

 however, it was not cultivated to any great extent, because the rais- 

 ing of tobacco was entered into with so much zeal; but in 1651 a 

 premium was given for its culture, when it received a great impetus. 



In 1620, wheat, together with rye, barley and other grains, was 

 exported from Manhattan Island to Holland. It was first intro- 

 duced into the valley of the Mississippi in 1781. The New Eng- 

 land states and New York did not raise scarcely any more wheat 

 than necessary for their own use until after the Revolutionary war, 

 but large quantities were exported from New Jersey to Europe, and 

 from Illinois to New Orleans. The price per bushel in 1635 was 

 sixty cents, while in 1860 it was sold for $3.25. At the 

 present time wheat is cultivated over nearly the whole world, being 

 limited only by the rigid cold of the North and the intense heat of 

 the South. We find it exported in large quantities from the United 

 States, Russia, Hungary, Turkey, Denmark and Chili. Next to the 

 United States, it is most extensively cultivated in Russia. The 

 great increase in the Pacific States is worth noticing. In 1850, only 

 17,200 bushels were raised. Now, we are told, there are many farms 

 of from 2,000 to 4,000 acres, while farms of from 20,000 to 40,000 

 acres are by no means few, entirely given up to the growth of wheat. 



