1920.] 



History of a Grain of Wheat. 



G29 



whereas certain Canadian and other wheats grown in similar 

 climates give rise to big spongy loaves of the kind which the 

 public prefer. In consequence, even the country miller is 

 compelled to use a considerable admixture of strong wheats of 

 overseas origin. In the course of the investigations that were 

 set on foot by the Home Grown Wheat Committee, some 20 

 years ago now, one wheat was found which retained in the 

 English climate this special property of giving a strong flour. 

 This wheat grown in England is too poor a cropper to be profit- 

 able, but it has supplied to Professor Biff en the starting point 

 for the combination of cropping power with strength, which 

 characterises his " Yeoman " wheat. When well grown in 

 the Eastern counties flour made from ' ' Yeoman ' ' wheat alone 

 is as strong as the ordinary mixture made up by the miller for 

 household flour. The limit of improvement in this direction 

 has not yet been reached, and as new varieties containing this 

 quality of strength are raised, the country miller may be ren- 

 dered independent of foreign wheats. 



Our Wheat Supplies. — Prior to the War we only grew one- 

 fifth of the wheat we consumed. The rest came from North 

 and South America, Kussia, India and Australia. Some of 

 these foreign supplies have been entirely cut off, and though 

 America has responded to the call by increasing her wheat 

 acreage during the War to an extent sufficient to feed Western 

 Europe, the total wheat acreage in the world is still perilously 

 short. There has been a general withdrawal of labour from 

 the land, and with increasing prosperity many of the Oriental 

 countries are increasing their consumption of wheat. For the 

 next year we are safe enough, because a considerable " carry 

 over " in North America coincides with an exportable surplus 

 from India and Australia and a good crop in Argentina. But 

 the permanent position is by no means assured, and unless 

 more land is put under wheat a bad crop in one or two of the 

 exporting countries, such as always comes at frequently recur- 

 ring intervals, would create a serious scarcity of wheat in the 

 whole world. As a national insurance it is a matter of the first 

 necessity to grow more wheat at home. It is possible to extend 

 our acreage; it is also possible to extend our production on the 

 existing wheat land. In both cases, however, better skill and 

 more knowledge are needed. The country, therefore, must not 

 grudge expenditure upon the attainment of knowledge, because 

 on knowledge hangs our assurance of a progressive food supply 

 in the future. 



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