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WHEAT CROP OF COUNTRIES NAMED, 1901-19061
(In round thousands of bushels.)

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in the supply of wheat would exist by 1931 on account of the increasing population. Such predictions generally over-emphasize the numerical increase in population which is current, and fail to give due regard to the laws which control the production of the food supply and its ratio to population. A scarcity of wheat simply raises its price and increases its production. In the world markets a sudden and acute scarcity of the general food supply is impossible. A gradual decrease in the general food supply until a serious shortage exists is equally impossible, for, whatever the standard of living, population will limit itself long before acute conditions are reached. While several countries each possess many millions of acres of the finest lands1Yearbook U. S. Dept. Agr., 1905-6.

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lands that lack only the application of human industry to make them productive of wheat, there is no occasion for any fear of a shortage of grain. The wheat industry of the world must undergo great developments before even its approximate limits can be defined.

The Northern Hemisphere produces about 95 per cent of the wheat crop of the world. This half of the globe not only consumes its entire product, but a large part of the crop of the Southern Hemisphere as well. About 75 per cent of the total wheat crop is produced in seven countries north of the equator. Europe produces over half of the world's wheat, but her population is so great that she consumes the world's surplus in addition to her own product. It was not until after the middle of the nineteenth century that large masses of trans-oceanic wheat appeared in Europe. In the seventies of this century India wheat made its advent into the world market, and two decades later there was a sudden and enormous influx of Argentine wheat. The world's production of wheat is continually increasing, and in 1906 it approximated three and a half billion bushels.

APPENDIX

CLASSIFICATION OF WHEAT

Following the classifications of Carleton,' of Haeckel, and of Kornicke and Werner, and perfecting them by adding new data, by extending to smaller subdivisions, by giving world distribution, and, for the sake of unity and completeness, by giving the essential characteristics of each division, there is given below a descriptive and distributive outline of the division Hordeæ given on Page 2.

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1.3 Aegilops (section). Species ovata taken as type. Found in southern Europe to Turkestan in Asia. Twelve species in all are recognized. Sitopyrus.

2.3
1.4 Triticum monococcum.

1.5

2.5

Name: None in English. German Einkorn preferred.
Engrain.

French

Characteristics: Spikelets three flowered but one grained; hardy; non-shattering: short, thin narrow-leaved plant, seldom over 3 feet high. Very constant in fertility; does not give fertile cross with common wheat; only species in which palea fall in two parts at maturity; spikelets awned; spike compact.

3.5 Distribution: Found from Achaia in Greece to Mesopotamia. Present in Swiss Lake dwellings of stone age. Cultivated to a limited extent in Spain, France, Germany Switzerland and Italy. Unknown in America except to experimenters.

4.5 Varieties: Einkorn; Engrain double (two grains).

5.5

Use: Rarely for bread; usually for mush and "cracked wheat," and for fodder.

2.4 Triticum Polonicum.

1.5 Name: Polish wheat a misnomer; Giant or Jerusalem rye. Perhaps native in Mediterranean region.

2.5

Characteristics: Only species in which lowest flower has palea as long as its glume; outer glumes at least as long as flowering glumes; two to three seeded; tall; stems pithy within; heads and kernels extremely large; macaroni gluten; drought and rust resistant; resembles rye. 3.5 Distribution: Spain; Italy; Abyssinia; Southern Russia and Turkestan: Brazil; Northwestern United States.

4.5

Varieties: Only one, White Polish, is widely known.

5.5 Use: Principally for macaroni.

3.4 Triticum sativum dicoccum.

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Name: None in English, often erroneously called spelt; German emmer preferred.

1 U. S. Dept. Agr., Div. Veg. Phys. and Path., Bul. 24, p. 6.

2 Minn. Bul. 62, p. 392.

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