4-58 
• toothed rachis, forming a solitary spike; glumes horizontal, often side by side 
on the same plane, sometimes deficient; the terminal or lateral florets often 
abortive; paleae awned or awnless; stamens three. 
GENUS 34. TRITICUM. Linnceus. 
[From the Latin tritus, beaten, or threshed.] 
Spikelets three to several flowered, compressed, with the flat sides towards 
the rachis; glumes nearly equal and opposite; lower paleae nearly like the 
glumes, convex, awned, or merely mucronate; the upper one flat, bristle-ciliate 
on the two keels, free, or adherent to the groove of the grain; ovary pubescent 
at the summit, 
89. Triticum Vulgare. Villars. 
Syn.— T. sativum, Linn. Wheat, winter wheat, spring wheat. 
Spike imbricated, with a tough rachis; spikelets four to five-flowered, broad- 
ovate, obtuse; florets mucronate or often awned; grain free. Annual; flowers 
in June. Culms 2 to 5 feet high. Runs into numerous varieties by culture. 
Wheat was cultivated by the Egyptians in very early times, and it appears 
to have been harvested by the same instrument, the sickle, that has always 
been used down to the time when Americans introduced the “ cradle” and the 
‘‘reaper.” Though with ordinary culture, only about twenty bushels are raised 
on an acre of land, yet we know that with careful culture, involving but little 
additional expense or labor, the yield may be increased to double that quantity; 
and even 55 bushels have been raised on an acre of land in New York. 
The yield of wheat in Wisconsin may be stated at about twenty bushels per 
acre, though for a number of years it has fallen below that amount. From, 
one and a half to two bushels of seed is used per acre, which is usually put 
in some where from the 1st to the 20th of September for winter wheat, and 
from the 1st to the 20th of April for spring wheat. Harvest usually occurs 
about August 1st, or from July 15th to August 15th. The sickle is never 
used, and the cradle only on uneven grounds, or such as has not yet been 
entirely cleared of the stumps of the original forest trees. The reaping ma¬ 
chines are very generally employed; and threshing machines are taken about 
the country by persons who make the threshing of wheat their peculiar 
calling. 
For a number of years the wheat crop in Wisconsin has gradually dimin¬ 
ished, farmers having turned their attention to other grains, and to other kinds 
