ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE The Bonanza Harvester Frontispiece Development of Wheat Plant 3 Distribution of Wheat Varieties 9 Root System of Wheat Plant 12 Organs of Wheat Reproduction 14 Coats of a Wheat Kernel 15 Cross Section of Wheat Grain 16 A Stool of Wheat 17 Opening of Wheat Flowers 20 Harvesting Minnesota Blue Stem Wheat 34 Crossing as a Cause of Variation 38 Diagram of Pedigree of Hybrid 42 Durum Wheat Districts 48 Wheat Plants from Good and Poor Seed 52 Combined Steam Plow, Harrow and Seeder GO Typical Farm Wheat Drill 64 A Modern Press and Disc Drill 67 Typical Force Feed Broadcast Seeder 68 Forms of Early Sickles and Scythes 79 Early and Modern Cradles 80 Gallic Header 81 Wheat Header in Operation 82 An Early English Reaper 85 A Modern Self-Rake Reaper 86 A Modern Self-Binding Harvester 87 Section of a Modern Threshing Machine 98 Combined Harvester and Thresher 104 Typical Wheat Field Where Rotation is Followed ... 112 Furrow Method of Irrigation 120 Twenty Self-Binding Harvesters at Work 128 Combined Grain and Fertilizer Drill 135 Three Threshing Outfits at Work 156 PAGE Sections of Smutted Wheat Straw 158 Stinking and Loose Smut 159 Aecidia on Barberry 162 Two Forms of Rust Spores 163 Black and Red Rust 164 Hessian Fly 171 Hessian Fly on Wheat 172 Chinch Bug 174 Wheat Midge 176 Wheat Plant Louse 177 Rocky Mountain Grasshopper 178 Grain Aphis or Green Bug 180 Granary Weevil 182 Grain Moth 183 Flour Moth 184 Transportation of Wheat on Water 191 Typical Small Storage Elevators 202 Storage in Open on a Farm 210 Wheat Awaiting Shipment by River 216 Storage at Primary Market 236 Mexican Hand Stone 262 American Indian Foreign Mortar 263 The Quern Mill 264 Details of a Dutch Windmill 266 Section of Large Modern Flour Mill 272 New Buffalo Flour Mill 278 Field of Durum Wheat 292 American Reaper in Russian Wheat 306 THE BOOK OF WHEAT CHAPTER I. ORIGIN. The Word Wheat can be traced back through the Middle English whete to Old English hwaete, which is allied to hwit, white. The German Weizen is related to weisz, which also means white. The French ble suggests blemir, to grow pale. Perhaps wheat was called white, to distinguish it from rye and other dark colored grains. Triticum, the botanical and classical name, doubtless comes from tritus, which is a participle from the Latin terere, to grind. The Italian frumento, and the similar French froment, are descended from the Latin word for corn or grain, frumcntum, which originated in frux, fruit. The Spanish trigo has evolved through French and Latin from the Greek trigonon, which has for its roots tri, three, and gonia, a corner or angle. Thus the most widely used names of the wheat plant were determined by the characteristics of the seed, as color, shape, the property of having to be ground for food, and the natural relation of the seed to the plant. The Geographical Origin of wheat has never been certainly determined. Such evidence as exists seems to point to Mesopotamia, but this is largely a matter of opinion. While wheat has been found growing apparently wild, the doubt always seems to remain that it may have simply escaped from cultivation. However, the belief that wheat once grew wild in the Euphrates and Tigris valleys, and spread from these to the rest of the world, has wider acceptance than any other. De Candolle's conviction rests largely on the evidence of Berosus and Strabo, while Lippert, in addition to the former, also cites Olivier and Andre Michaux. Darwin appears to have favored the same theory. From this center wheat is supposed to have spread to Phoenicia and Egypt. The Chinese considered it a gift from heaven. Homer and Diodorus Siculus say that it grew wild in Sicily. Humboldt denies |