THE WHEAT CULTUEIST. 



21 



unite the waters which flow to the northward with those 

 which flow to the eqnator ; that boats be constructed, 

 and ships with wide-spreading canvas were found to be 

 indispensable ; and lastly, the steamboat, steamship, 

 railroad, and steam flouring-mill were as loudly and 

 as earnestly demanded in our day as was the rude plough 

 in the first days of civilization. 



" There is not in the entire catalogue of plants an- 

 other one which has been as instrumental in the devel- 

 opment of mechanical ingenuity, and the intellectual 

 faculties, as has been, and is, the wheat plant. It is 

 true that fibre-producing plants, and prominently among 

 these flax and cotton, have exercised considerable influ- 

 ence in the development of mechanical inventions ; but 

 upon strict examination it will be found that very many 

 of the principles of mechanical structures and combi- 

 nations of powers had already been called into requisi- 

 tion by the fibre produced by the sheep, and the thread 

 produced by the silk- worm. 



" In countries where the agricultural art, or rather 

 the culture of the wheat plant, has fallen into disuse, 

 there has civilization also retrograded ; and were it 

 not for commerce with enlightened and refined nations, 

 several countries would speedily relapse into all the hor- 

 rors of absolute barbarism. Were the wheat plant 

 ' blotted out of existence,' society would of necessity 

 revert to its original state. In vain would the miner 

 delve in the bowels of the earth to bring forth the dark 

 and heavy ore to make iron. ISTo iron would be wrought 

 because there would be no use for ploughs, and conse- 

 quently, no use for the thousand mechanical contriv- 

 ances for sowing, harvesting, thrashing, cleaning, trans- 

 porting, and grinding wheat. Is it not astonishing to 



