SECTION II. 



THE GRAIN CROPS, EDIBLE ROOTS, AND FARINACEOUS PLANTS 

 FORMING THE BREAD STUFFS OF COMMERCE. 



THE vegetable substances, from which man derives his principal 

 sustenance, such as the nutritious cereal grains, the tuberous rooted 

 plants and the trees yielding farina, are very widely diffused, and 

 necessarily occupy the main attention of the cultivator; their 

 products forming the most important staples of domestic and 

 foreign commerce. The cereal grasses and roots, cultivated in 

 temperate regions, such as wheat, barley, oats, rye, and the 

 potato, are so well known, and have been so fully described 

 by agricultural writers that I shall not go much into details 

 as to their varieties, culture, &c., but confine myself chiefly to 

 their distribution, produce, statistics, and commercial importance. 

 The food plants may be most conveniently arranged under three 

 heads. Firstly the Grain crops and legumes, which comprises 

 the European cultivated grasses, wheat, barley, oats, &c. ; and 

 the tropical ones of rice, maize, millet, Guinea corn, &c. Secondly 

 Palms and other trees yielding farina, including the sago palms, 

 plantain and banana, and the bread fruit tree. And Thirdly the 

 edible Root crops and Starch producing plants, which are a some- 

 what extensive class, the chief of which, however, are the com- 

 mon potato, yams, cocos or eddoes, sweet potatoes, the bitter and 

 sweet cassava or manioc, the arrowroot and other plants yielding 

 starch in more or less purity. 



There is a great diversity of food, from the humble oak bark 

 bread of the Norwegian peasant, or the Brahmin, whose appetite 

 is satisfied with vegetables, to the luxurious diet of a HuDgarian 

 Magnate at Vienna. 



The bread stuffs, as they are popularly termed, particularly 

 wheat and wheat flour, maize, and rice, form very important 

 articles of commerce, and enter largely into cultivation in various 

 countries for home consumption and export. Russia, India, and the 

 United States, carry on a very considerable trade in grain with other 

 countries. Our local production being insufficient for food and 

 manufactures, we import yearly immense quantities of grain and 

 flour. In the four years ending 1852, the annual quantity of corn, of 



