660 



VETCH 



WHEAT 



As stock-feed. — ^The vetches are very useful as 

 pasture plants, cattle, horses sheep and swine 

 usually eating them green or cured with avidity. 

 There are, however, a few records of animals at 

 first having refused to eat vetch. Sown in August 

 or early September on rich land, hairy vetch may 

 afford a little grazing in December and January, 

 but ordinarily little grazing can be expected before 

 February. 



Vetch seeds have been fed experimentally to 

 cattle with satisfactory results, but they are too 

 valuable for this use. Hairy vetch is also useful 

 as a food for bees, and in the South as a means of 

 subduing annual weeds that make their growth in 

 spring. 



As a soil renovator and cover-crop. [See Cover- 

 Crops, p. 258.] — All species and varieties of vetch 

 are useful for improving the soil by means of the 

 nitrogen which the plants take from the air through 

 their tubercles and store up in the vegetation or 

 in the soil. For this reason, also, they find use as 

 cover-crops in orchards. In New York, hairy vetch 

 remains green all winter and grows in the spring. 



Weedy character of vetches. 



Some species of vetch are likely to become 

 weeds in wheat-fields, the seed ripening at the 

 same time as wheat and being difficult to separate 

 from wheat. At the Michigan station this habit of 

 vetches was pronounced, but farther north, where 

 the season is too short to permit complete maturity 

 of vetch sown in the spring, and in those parts of 

 the southern states where little wheat is grown, 

 this danger may be disregarded. A part of the 

 vetch seed may remain in the ground for several 

 years and then germinate. 



Literature. 



Alabama (College) Experiment Station, Bulletins 

 Nos. 87, 96, 105; Arkansas Experiment Station, 

 Bulletin No. 68; Delaware Experiment Station, 

 Bulletins Nos. 60, 61; Massachusetts (Hatch) 

 Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 18; Louisiana 

 Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 72; Michigan 

 Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 227; Mississippi 

 Experiment Station, Bulletins Nos. 20, 44; New 

 York (Cornell) Station, Bulletin No. 198; United 

 States Department of Agriculture, Farmers' Bulle- 

 tins Nos. 18, 102, 147, and Circular No. 6, Division 

 of Agrostology. 



WHEAT. Triticum sativum. Lam. 

 Figs. 893-908 ; also Fig. 563. 



By E. E. Elliott 

 and T. L. Lyon. 



Wheat is a plant of 

 vast economic impor- 

 tance, widely distrib- 

 uted over the civilized 

 world and having a his- 

 tory coincident with 

 that of the human race. 

 The grain is used 



Gramineoe. 



largely for human food, chiefly as food-stuffs made 

 from its flour, and in the form of breakfast foods. 

 The by-products of its manufacture are used as 

 stock-food. The grain, whole or ground, is also 

 valuable for stock-feeding. 



By nature it is an annual, although cultivation 

 and improvement have modified its habits to a large 

 extent. The tribe Hordeae, in which wheat is 

 included, is distinguished by its many-flowered 

 spikelets which are arranged alternately on a stem 

 or rachis, thus forming a spike. The close relation- 

 ship of wheat with barley, rye, rice and other 

 cereals having the familiar spike head is readily 

 observable. 



The genus Triticum embraces wheat proper, but 

 includes in its species and varieties several plants 

 differing slightly in structure or habits of growth. 

 These species and varieties are further broken up 

 into types. Extensive studies of these with the 

 object of classifying them on a rational basis have 

 been made by scientists in recent years, but as yet 

 a generally accepted arrangement has not been 

 fully worked out. The classifications adopted are 

 further confused with the distinctions made in the 

 various markets of the world and the uses to 

 which the grain is put. 



Botanical characters. 



The wheat grain. — The wheat seed or berry is 

 the part of the plant of greatest economic value. 

 It is also the one means of reproducing the plant. 

 The seed, or grain, as it is generally called, is 

 a hard, dry, oblong fruit with a longitudinal fur- 

 row on one side. The seed varies greatly in size, 

 shape, color, hardness and composition, but retains 

 under all conditions, distinct and common charac- 

 teristics. In size and weight it varies so that the 

 number of grains in a pound ranges from 8,000 to 

 24,000, with a probable average of about 12,000. 

 It is obvious that the number of seeds in a given 

 quantity, either of weight or measure, will vary 

 accordingly. Variations in the specific gravity 

 range from 1.146 to 1.518. 



In general, the shape is oblong with one end 

 slightly pointed, but in some types the ends of the 

 grain are much elongated, the berry itself being 

 flattened, while in others it more nearly approaches 

 a sphere. In color there is a wide range, from the 

 paler shades of yellow through what is called 

 amber, to deep red. Color is considered to have a 

 close relationship to hardness of the grain and its 

 composition. 



The composition of wheat as reported by the Uni- 

 ted States Department of Agriculture is as follows: 



