A STUDY OF WHEAT. 



This is due principally to the fact that the summers are long and 

 devoid of heavy rains. 



Regarding wheat with a botanical interest, we will find it in the 

 family of Graminea the family of grasses and belonging to the 

 species Triticum Vulgare. Of this there are two distinct sub- 

 species, known as Summer and Winter wheat the Summer, Triti- 

 cum astivum, and the Winter, Triticum hybernum. Each of these 

 sub-species is divided into many varieties, as Treadwell, Diehl, 

 Clawson, Tappahannock, etc. In wheat Triticum there is but a 

 single spikelet at each joint; its two glumes placed transversely, and 

 it is from three to several flowered; the lower palet is pointed or fur- 

 nished at the tips with awn, of variable length; stamens, three. The 

 .sub-divisions into Spring and Winter, seem to be the result of cul- 

 tivation more than anything else, for several different experimenters 

 have been able to produce the Winter variety from the Spring, after 

 several successive trials, and the reverse is also true. 



De Condolle a botanist of high authority believes wheat to 

 be the result in growth of the cultivation of a wild grass. He even 

 claims that this grass is still growing in certain localities in Central 

 Europe. Many different varieties have been cultivated. One gen- 

 tleman in France, who has experimented largely with this grain, has 

 succeeded in raising 322 entirely different varieties. The differ- 

 ences between varieties consist in the size of the plant, its shape, 

 habit of growth, in its foliage, in the size or shape of the spike or 

 head, and in the size, form, color and heaviness of the grain. 

 There are about twelve varieties in this country. The same variety 

 is found in different localities under different names, so we have 

 many purely local names. So a certain variety may grow lux- 

 uriantly in one locality, and be nearly, if not quite, a failure, in an- 

 other, due to the soil, climate, and various other causes, singly or 

 combined. But all farmers know that a good soil is as necessary 

 for a good yield of wheat as for any other grain. Of course, pure, 

 clean seed is a most indispensable aid to insure a fine crop, and 

 plenty of skill should be exercised in keeping out all foreign seeds. 

 The weeds which are the most troublesome to wheat are cockle, 

 Jiychnie githago, and chess or cheat, bromus secalinus, which is some- 

 times so abundant that some farmers take it to be degenerate wheat. 

 In New York a great deal of trouble is experienced from the pres- 

 ence of red-root or gromwell, lithospernum averese. Then wheat 



