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36 On the Conditions of Wheat-G-rounng in India. ( 
It is impossible to forget the care with wliich wheat is reared | 
iu the Paujab and the North- West Provinces, the numerous ! 
ploughings and frequent waterings that are deemed indispensable, 
and hence the contrast with the cultivation and character of the | 
wheat conveyed by the last quotation forces the conviction that I 
these facts can alone be explained by the supposition that local 
adaptations have produced widely different products. In nearly 
every account of Bombay wheat there occurs the remark of 
certain varieties being " dry crop " — that is, wheats grown on 
dry lands, and which do not require to be watered. ' 
At the same time a fact of the greatest interest has, along 
with this supposed commonplace idea, passed current without 
calling forth any special comment. In nearly every report a I 
form of wheat known as Idiaple is described as a wheat that 
requires much watering. There seems little doubt from the brief 
descriptions that have appeared of this wheat that it is a form 
of spelt-wheat. We have seen spelt-wheat sent from the 
mountains of South India, but have always suspected that it 
may have probably been a modern introduction. Here, how- 
ever, there would appear to be no grounds for such an opinion. ] 
It is grown all over the Western Presidency, and it is quite ; 
possible its area of cultivation may extend to Southern India. ' 
Apart from the possibility of hybridisation with the ordinaiy j 
wheat having exercised some influence towards the production of ' 
some of the most striking forms of Bombay hard wheat, the 
existence in India of an anciently cultivated wheat belonging 
to the series of which Triticum spelta is the type must upset ! 
materially a great deal of what has been written regarding the 
history of wheat. 
M. de CandoUe, in his valuable work on the " Origin of ] 
Cultivated Plants," says : " Spelt has no name in Sanskrit, nor 
in any modern Indian languages, nor in Pei'sian, and therefore, of ■ 
course, none in Chinese." He arrives at the conclusion that it i 
most probably was derived in Europe iu, comparatively speaking, j 
modern times from the common wheat. By way of showing that 
there is at least a strong probability that the l-JiapU wheat of i 
Bombay is a form of spelt, we may reproduce one or two pas- | 
sages regarding it. In the " Poona Gazetteer " there occurs the 
remark : — ! 
" ^rt;?///(5 is the wheat usually grown in gai'dms. It is very hardy. It ; 
owes its name to the fact that the grain cannot be separated from the husk ' 
without pounding. It is sown as a second or dtmila crop in January or \ 
February on irrigated lands after hhjri, mai/ie, tobacco, chillies, or wiicat, 
with good results." 
We have here in itself a fact of very considerable interest — 
namely, that, as with rice, we do actually possess in India a wheat 
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