108 



THE WHEAT CULTUETST. 



ance of the ear. The variety is called the Seven- 

 headed Egyptian Club Wheat. ]Mi\ Klippart states that 

 " this variety is known nnder the names of Egyptian, 

 Syrian, Smyrna, Many-spiked, Eeed, and Wild-goose 

 Wheat. It derives its latter name from a story, which is 

 current in the north, that four or five kernels, from which 

 the American stock has proceeded, were found in the 

 crop of a wild goose, which was shot on the west shore 

 of Lake Ghamplain. It is called i?f?^(Z Wheat, fi'om the 

 great strength of its straw, which serves to prevent its 

 being prostrated in the field. It does not yield so much 

 flour or meal as other kinds of wheat ; and the flom* is 

 scarcely superior to that obtained from the finest barley. 

 We find it described in some authorities as Mummy 

 Wheat, or wheat three thousand years old. The 

 following is a brief popular alleged history of it : It is 

 said that some years ago a gentleman having occasion to 

 unroll an Egyptian mummy, found enclosed with the 

 body a few grains of wheat, which afterward, upon being 

 sown witli the modern Egyptian wheat, was found to be 

 entirely dissimilar. The former contained nearly a 

 hundred stalks, ranging in length from nearly five to 

 upward of six feet, the leaves broader than usual, and 

 fully an average as to length. The grain was in two 

 rows or triplets, and on some, twenty triplets on a side, 

 or forty on the ear. The ear contained a few barbs or 

 awns on the upper end, and was open and distant be- 

 tween the grains. It flowered nearly a fortnight before 

 any of the varieties sown at the same period. The 

 modern Egyptian is dwarf, not more than four feet high, 

 closely set and barbed in every part of the ear, and its 

 general resemblance to its ancient progenitor is not 

 greater than that of barley to wheat. Egyptian wheat, 



