WINNIPEG, 1909. 807 
observations to the effect that the wild wheat and the wild barley are 
closely associated in their natural habitats. It is like an echo from the dim 
mythical past, telling us that wheat and barley are twins of one home and 
one age. Myths are like dreams, but even dreams have their kernels of 
truth. Diodorus Siculus, a Greek historian and contemporary of Cesar, 
records the following legend: ‘Osyris, whose home was at Nysa, in that 
py of fertile Arabia which is not far from Egypt, loved agriculture, and 
e found the vine in the neighbourhood of Nysa. This shrub was growing 
there wild, abundant, and hanging from the trees. Here also Isis found 
wheat and barley, growing haphazard in the country among the other plants, 
but unknown to man.’ Diodorus further says that there was at Nysa a 
column, with a hieroglyphic inscription commemorating Isis’ discovery ; the 
inscription ran: ‘I am the queen of all this country. I am the wife of 
Osiris and his sister. I am she who has first taught man to know the 
cereals. I am she who resides in the constellation of the dog. O rejoice, 
Egypt, thou my nurse.’ Where is, then, this fabulous Nysa, the home of 
wheat and barley? Pliny identifies it with Scythopolis, but Scythopolis is 
none other than Bethshean, a town west of the Jordan and not many miles 
south of the Sea of Galilee, in the trend of the same hills which, fifty miles 
further north, to this day bear the wild wheat and the wild barley ‘ growing 
haphazard in the country among the other plants.’ Where, if not here, has 
ever any myth come true? Isis’ column at Nysa has fallen, but her golden 
treasure has borne millionfold and conquered the world wherever the white 
man went; when you go through your wheat-fields and think of Isis, your 
great benefactress, you will hear out of the rustle of the ears the gentle voice 
of the dark-eyed goddess : ‘ Rejoice, rejoice.’ 
ConcLUDING REMARKS. 
Various points were dealt with in the discussion which took place after 
the speakers had summarised their communications; for the most part 
these are covered by the Papers printed above. 
Tt will be clear from these how numerous are the issues raised, how 
important and how infinitely difficult are the problems which still have to 
be solved before it can be said that we understand wheat; breed, soil, 
climatic conditions, public requirements. and economic considerations are 
all factors of primary importance which not only must be taken into 
account but often balanced against one another. 
The Rothamsted experiments afford much information as to the food 
requirements of the wheat plant, but the data may be said to be chiefly 
statistical. At present we know little or nothing of the actual composition of 
the grain ; we are unable to say to what extent it always approaches a certain 
general average. We are unable to estimate the starch in wheat with any 
degree of accuracy and we determine nitrogen in it without any reference to 
the forms in which the nitrogen is present. A great field of useful work is 
open to those who will endeavour to devise analytical methods which wil] 
make it possible to discuss the food value of cereal products in relation to 
their ultimate composition. 
The discussion to which the determination of the strength of flour has 
given rise is of great interest in many respects, but there is considerable 
difference of opinion between those who look at the subject from the practical 
side and those who are seeking to give an explanation of the mysterious 
behaviour of gluten. Great stress is laid upon the amount and quality of the 
mineral matters in flour, but in practice, in making bread, a considerable 
amount of salt is added and therefore the mineral matter in the flour 
cannot alone be counted as effective. 
The question, after all, is one of behaviour under practical conditions. 
