2 



Introduction. 



regarded as the staff of life ; as other races of men have made 

 acquaintance with it they have adopted it in preference to other 

 cereals ; thus as a human food it is displacing rice, millet, and 

 other grains in the East, and maize on the American Continent. 

 The production of wheat, in fact, is now one of the most funda- 

 mental of the problems of our time and also one of the most 

 complex ; it raises many issues, and many interests are concerned 

 with it. 



Many varieties of wheat are known, differing more or less in 

 character and in requirements. The grower has to discover which 

 variety or varieties are suited to the conditions of his locality, and 

 to cultivate that which will yield him most profit. It may well 

 happen that the most profitable variety is not that which he can 

 grow most easily, and he is in a measure obliged to effect a 

 compromise. 



In England, in the eastern States of America and other places 

 where excess of water has to be avoided, drainage must be resorted 

 to ; elsewhere, in the western States of America and in India, for 

 example, extensive irrigation works have been undertaken ; where 

 irrigation has not been possible special methods of cultivation are 

 adopted, in order to secure the necessary supply of water — as 

 among the natives of India and of Syria, and in the case of the 

 system of so-called dry farming now in vogue on the western 

 prairies of America. The old systems of husbandry were all 

 arranged with the object of securing the maximum possible supply 

 of food for the wheat plant. 



Among the difficulties to be faced by the modern grower of 

 wheat those due to drought, frost, and rust are the most serious. 



Wheat is for a number of reasons an admirable crop for the 

 pioneer. It is always saleable ; it can be stored and sent long 

 distances without deteriorating ; of all agricultural commodities 

 it is the easiest to transport. It is easily grown, requiring but 

 little capital, and it does well on newly broken grounds ; a few 

 years of wheat cultivation affords an admirable opportunity of 

 getting virgin land into condition for any other scheme of 

 husbandry that may be desirable. As long as the present wave of 

 expansion continues in Canada, Argentina, Australia, Russia, and 

 elsewhere, enormous supplies of wheat will be produced under 

 pioneer conditions, not necessarily as a permanent business, but 

 to some extent, at any rate, as a temporary expedient. During the 

 last twenty or thirty years the supplies have been so cheap as to 

 displace wheat from its premier position in the rotation system 

 of long-settled countries and to convert it into a by-product. The 

 change came quickly and caused terrible loss and suffering to 

 farmers who failed to take notice of its occurrence and to alter 

 their scheme of husbandry. But the change is not ended ; the 



