136 



THE ILLINOIS FAEMEK. 



May 



from Cincinnati, wliere it is largely worked, 

 and in the nursery of Mr. J. S. Cook, to the 

 extent of twenty thousand in a single sea- 

 son. We obtained our stock of 3Ir. W., and 

 have disseminated thousands of trees to all 

 parts of the State. At the Dupage county 

 Nursery of Lewis Ellsworth & Co., they 

 work it largely as a dwarf on the Mahaleb. 

 Our practice has been that of Mr. W., to 

 work its standard high on the Morello, and 

 by deep setting avoid the sprouting about 

 the roots that he mentions, but in all such 

 cases the ground must be well surface drain- 

 ed, to say the least. Ed, 



[From the N. Y. Tribune.] 



Marvels of the Wheat Plant. 



Iron has been liild by some to be the true sym- 

 bol of civiliz:.tion, bec-iuse nations produce and 

 use it in proportion to their social and. industrial 

 advancement. A similar claim has been made 

 for cotton, but by the task master only. But the 

 wheat plant is tlie true symbol. Civilizatioa be- 

 gan when its cultivation commenced. No savage 

 nations cultivate it. The American aborigines 

 had no. knowledge of it, and they quickly remark- 

 ed the difference between themselves and the 

 English, saying that the latter lived on seeds 

 while they lived on flesh ; that the flesh had four 

 legs on which to escape, while they had but two 

 with which to pursue it, and that the seed-gmw- 

 ers would supercede the flesh eafers. \\herever 

 wheat is cultivated the nations abandon barbar- 

 ism. Mechanism was iuvoked, even many cen- 

 turies ago, to pron'ote, by rude contrivances, both 

 tillage and cleaning. The inventor of the sickle 

 is unknown, but the pioneers of Dutch commerce 

 in China there discovered the winnowing mill, 

 which is now a fixture in every American barn. 

 The wheat plant has long been perhaps the great- 

 est power in the earth. It was the acknowledged 

 staff of life when the steam engine vpas unknown, 

 before a single coal mine had beenopenad, or the 

 miraculous capacities of i''on had been ascertain- 

 ed. It has been the great power from whicli hu- 

 man efforts, in all countries, has derived its 

 mightiest momentuoi. It has built turnpikes and 

 railroads, dug canals, founded cities, covered 

 rivers with steamboats and the ocean with ships. 

 Millions of human beings depend upon it for ex- 

 istence, both as growers and consumers. Banish 

 it from the earth, and It would be vain to seek 

 for a substitute. Our teeming West would stop 

 suddenly short in its wonderful career of great- 

 •ness. Agriculture everywhere would pause, scarc- 

 ity be universal, and the fact be recognized that 

 the wheat plant is the corner stone of civiliza- 

 tion. 



The oldest history mentions the cultivation of 

 wheat. But the plant has at no time, nor in any 

 place, bean found growing wild. Neither is the 

 country of its origin certainly known. On this 



point we obtain light enough from history and 

 botany to justify the conjecture that its native 

 place is Persia, and also India. But even on this 

 point there are different opinions entertained by 

 able writers. It is certainly not indigenous to 

 America. In 1530, a slave of Cortez tound some 

 grains which had been accidentally mixed with 

 rice, and having carefully planted them and their 

 product for several years, he raised a stock of 

 sevd from which all thfi subsequent wheat crops 

 of Mexico have been derived. The controversy 

 touching the origin of wheat has been most ani- 

 mated and voluminous. In Sicily a wild grass is 

 found called by botanists Egilops ovata, which 

 some have contended to be the true parent of 

 wheat. It is a hard, rough looking gr..ss, which 

 is sometimes gathered in bunches and burnt, and 

 the seeds used tor food. 



It is also found in various other places, and 

 there are several species of it. It was contended 

 that by careful cultivation the Eglops could be 

 transiormed into wheat. This was as vehemently 

 denied. It was known, however, that, under cer- 

 tain circumstances, plants very' nearly resembling 

 wheat had been produced from two perfectly dis- 

 tinct species of Egi'iops, and the presumption ob- 

 tained that these were the wild representatives of 

 cultivated grain, and that therefore wheat is no- 

 thing more than Egilops modified by the influeucs 

 of soil, c imate and superior cultivation. 



While this point was yet mooted by the bota- 

 nists, an experimtnt was going on, unkuowu to 

 them, instituted by one who had never heard of 

 their investigations, their discoveries or their dis- 

 agreements, and who knew but little of botanical 

 science Its results have had an important influ- 

 ence in determining the question at issue. In 

 1838 a French gardener, Esprit Fabr; , fViuud the 

 Egilops ovata growing wild in the neighborhood 

 of his residence at Adge. In the autumn of that 

 year he sowed the seed, and in 1839 the plants 

 grew from two to two and a half feet high, ri- 

 pened and yielded an increase of only five fold. 



This increase was r.gaiu sowed, and in 1840 the 

 croji bore a striking resemblance to genuine 

 wheat. It was sowed that fall, and in 1811 the 

 product was a crop of ears more closely resemb- 

 ling true wheat. Great and important changes 

 were observable in the grains of this third crop. 

 There was no longer any barren spikelets, while 

 all of them were in every respect like wheat, each 

 one bearing two or three perfectly developed 

 grains. These were sowed, but in 1842 the crop 

 was almost entirely destroyed by rust. The few 

 grains saved were sowed, and in 1813 the plants 

 grew three feet high, the straw being firmer than 

 before, and less brittle. The ears were less frag- 

 ile, and resembled wheat exactly. One grain 

 yield. d 800 g-ains tor one sown, and another 450. 

 Planted again, and in 1844 all the spikelets were 

 fertile, and many of them contained three grains. 

 In 1845, all who examined the crop adjudged it 

 to be true wheat. M. Fabre so regarded it him- 

 self, and in 1845 he sowed the grain in an open 

 field, and for four succeeding yerrs continqed to 

 produce it with equal success, the yield being six 

 to eight times the seed sown. The stems were 

 straight, solid, and were thirty inches high. 



This remarkable result excited the liveliest at- 

 tention from the learned men of Europe. It con- 



