Concluding Remarks. 



83 



growing there wild, abundant, and hanging from the trees. Here 

 also Isis found wheat and barley, growing haphazard in the 

 country among the other plants, but unknown to man." Diodorus 

 further says that there was at Nysa a column, with a hieroglyphic 

 inscription commemorating Isis' discovery; the inscription ran: 

 " I am the queen of all this country. I am the wife of Osiris and 

 his sister. I am she who has first taught man to know the cereals. 

 I am she who resides in the constellation of the dog. O rejoice, 

 Egypt, thou my nurse." Where is, then, this fabulous Nysa, the 

 home of wheat and barley? Pliny identifies it with Scythopolis, 

 but Scythopolis is none other than Bethshean, a town west of the 

 Jordan and not many miles south of the Sea of Galilee, in the 

 trend of the same hills which, fifty miles further north, to this 

 day bear the wild wheat and the wild barley "growing haphazard 

 in the country among the other plants." Where, if not here, has 

 ever any myth come true? Isis' column at Nysa has fallen, but 

 her golden treasure has borne millionfold and conquered the 

 world wherever the white man went; when you go through your 

 wheat-fields and think of Isis, your great benefactress, you will 

 hear out of the rustle of the ears the gentle voice of the dark-eyed 

 goddess: "Rejoice, rejoice." 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 



Various points were dealt with in the discussion which took 

 place after the speakers had summarised their communications ; 

 for the most part these are covered by the Papers printed above. 



It will be clear from these how numerous are the issues raised, 

 how important and how infinitely difficult are the problems which 

 still have to be solved before it can be said that we understand 

 wheat; breed, soil, climatic conditions, public requirements, and 

 economic considerations are all factors of primary importance, 

 which not only must be taken into account but often balanced 

 against one another. 



The Rothamsted experiments afford much information as to the 

 food requirements of the wheat plant, but the data may be said 

 to be chiefly statistical. At present we know little or nothing of 

 the actual composition of the grain ; we are unable to say to what 

 extent it always approaches a certain general average. We are 

 unable to estimate the starch in wheat with any degree of accuracy, 

 and we determine nitrogen in it without any reference to the 

 forms in which the nitrogen is present. A great field of useful 

 work is open to those who will endeavour to devise analytical 

 methods which will make it possible to discuss the food value ol 

 cereal products in relation to their ultimate composition. 



The discussion to which the determination of the strength of 

 flour has given rise is of great interest in many respects, but 



