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however, that 800,000,000 persons, or 54 per cent of the inhabitants of the globe, derive their sustenance mainly from rice. The most important cereal produced in the United States, measured in bushels or dollars, is corn, and wheat stands second. From the census we find that the United States produced in 1899, including farm animals and their products, an aggregate value of nearly five billion dollars. Of this, animals brought 900 millions, corn 828, and wheat 370, over 7.4 per cent. In 1906 the corresponding figures for corn and wheat were 1,100 and 450. For at least several decades, corn has formed over 50 per cent of the total acreage of cereals in the United States. Wheat formed 29.8 per cent in 1880, 23.9 per cent in 1890, 28.4 per cent in 1900, and 27 per cent in 1905. In value, corn formed 55.8 per cent in 1900, and wheat 24.9 per cent. Cereals form 51 per cent of the value of all crops, which gives the value of wheat as nearly 13 per cent of that of all crops. Out of a total of over 5.5 million farms in the United States, over two million raise wheat. The world's annual production and consumption of wheat is nearly 3.5 billion bushels.

Qualitative. Taking the civilized world as a whole, wheat forms the principal food of man. It is much more widely distributed than either its commercial rival, corn, or its rival food cereal, rice. It is a prime necessity of civilized life. The quantity of wheat milled is larger than that of all other cereals combined. Sixty-two per cent of all cereal products milled in the United States during 1900 were from wheat. It is essentially a bread cereal. Bananas, rice, potatoes, and other soil products will sustain a greater population on a given unit of land than wheat will, but they are not so well adapted to a high standard of living. Herein lies the present and increasingly great importance of wheat, for it seems to be the tendency of the civilized world to raise its standard of living. As the standard of living rises, wheat becomes a relatively more important part of human food. Rye and oats furnished the bread of the great body of people in Europe during the middle ages. Wheat was high-priced and not extensively grown. England early became a wheat eating nation. France and

the other Latin countries followed later. Rye is still extensively used in Germany, but is gradually being superseded by wheat. Even Russia is using more wheat flour than she did twenty years ago.

The great intrinsic food value of wheat; its ease of cultivation and preparation for use; its wide adaptation to different climates and soils; its quick and bountiful return; and the fact of its being paniferous and yielding such a vast number and variety of products are all factors that enhance the value of the wheat grain. Its combined qualitative and quantitative importance gives to wheat a great superiority over any other cereal, and causes it to be dealt in more extensively upon the speculative markets than any other agricultural product. As an essential part of the food of civilized man it becomes of an importance so vital as to be dominating.

CLASSIFICATION.

The Classification of wheat seems always to have been in a more or less chaotic state. This is especially true of the nomenclature of varieties. Nor is the fault to be laid particularly at the door of science. We have seen that wheat has been continually migrating for many centuries. It is a plant that is easily influenced by environment and therefore particularly unstable in type. Since it has always been migrating to new environments, a complete change in type often resulted, though it was still known by the old name. This is further complicated by the fact that the modern art of breeding wheat has originated many new varieties. Add to this the fact that wheat has been shipped all over the world, not only for commercial purposes, but also for seed experiments, and it is not surprising that the nomenclature of varieties is somewhat tangled, that several varieties are known by the same name, or that one variety may have several names, and may pass for several varieties. It is among the most common wheats that the difficulty has been most perplexing.

Classes and Distribution.-There are several kinds of the less common wheats, such as Polish wheat, spelt and durum wheat, which have very marked characteristics, and which have perhaps not migrated so widely. In spite of some confusion in names, it is generally possible to determine to which

class they belong. Some of the most common and widely used classifications are those based on time of sowing, as spring and winter wheat; on firmness of structure of the grain, as hard and soft; on the products for which they are used, as bread and macaroni wheats; and on the color of the seed, as red and white. As will later be shown, wheat adapts itself to new environments so that any one of these classes may be transformed into any other, and as wheat is raised so widely as to embrace practically every kind of environment, these classes grade into each other so imperceptibly that even an expert can hardly determine to which class a certain wheat may belong. An approximate division has, however, been made. Mr. M. A.

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Carleton, cerealist of the United States department of agriculture, has divided the wheat grown in the United States into eight classes, and has shown the distribution of these classes by districts in the accompanying map.

On the north Atlantic coast is the soft wheat district, south of the Great Lakes the semi-hard district, and south of these two districts is the southern district. The Red river valley is

1 U. S. Dept. Agr., Div. Veg. Phys. & Path., Bul. 24.

the center of hard spring wheat, Kansas of hard winter wheat and north central Texas of durum wheats. White wheat is raised on the Pacific coast. The center of red wheat, not shown in this division, is from Kansas to the Red river valley. A still more general classification by the same author divides the United States crosswise into three divisions of approximately equal width, assigning the hard wheats to the northern states, the soft wheats to the states of the middle latitudes, and the durums to the southern states. About two-thirds of the wheat raised in the United States is winter wheat. Nearly 90 per cent of the wheat grown in Russia is spring wheat. In Canada, Manitoba raises spring wheat exclusively, but Ontario and Alberta raise some of the winter variety. In Germany, over 90 per cent of the wheat grown is of the winter variety, which is largely grown over southern Europe and on the British Isles. Spring wheat was once more generally called summer wheat, and winter wheat is often also called fall wheat.

Carleton, on a geographical basis, located groups of varieties having special qualities approximately as follows:

1. Starchy white wheats: Pacific coast and Rocky Mountain states, Chile, Turkestan, Australia and India

2. Amber or reddish grained wheats, also starchy: Eastern states, western and northern Europe, India, Japan and Australia.

3. Wheats with excellence of gluten content for making bread: Northern and central states of the plains, Canada, eastern and southern Russia, Hungary, Roumania and southern Argentina.

4. Wheats resistant to orange leaf rust: Southern Russia, Mediterranean and Black Sea regions, and Australia.

5. Wheats with excellence of gluten content for making macaroni: Southern Russia, Algeria, and the Mediterranean region in general.

6. Wheats with stiff straw, which prevents lodging: Pacific coast states, Japan, Turkestan, Mediterranean region and Australia.

7. Wheats with great yielding power (at least in proportion to size of head): Pacific coast states, Chile and Turkestan.

8. Non-shattering wheats: Pacific coast states, Chile, Turkestan, Germany (spelts), and East Russia (emmers).

9. Wheats of great constancy in fertility: Germany (spelts) and southern Europe.

10. Wheats of early maturity: Japan, Australia and India. 11. Wheats most resistant to drought and heat: East and South Russia, Kirghiz Steppes, Turkestan and southern Mediterranean region.

12. Wheats most resistant to drought and cold: East Russia.

Species. There are eight principal types of cultivated wheat: Einkorn (Triticum monococcum); Polish wheat (Tr. polonicum); Emmer (Tr. sativum dicoccum); Spelt (Tr. sat. spelta); Club or Square-head wheat (Tr. sat. compactum); Poulard wheat (Tr. sat. turgidum); Durum wheat (Tr. sat. durum); and Commion wheat (Tr. sut. vulgare).

Varieties. In 1900, after five years of experimentation with about 1,000 varieties of wheat collected from the different wheat countries of the world, the United States department of agriculture decided that, tested by American conditions, there were 245 leading varieties. No one variety is best under all conditions, but climate, soil, and the purpose for which wheat is raised must in each case determine which variety is most profitable. If a variety can be secured that will yield more under the same conditions than other varieties do, then profits can be easily increased, for its production involves no additional expense, except possibly an extra outlay for seed. Prof. W. M. Hays estimates that Minnesota No. 169, a variety of wheat introduced by the Minnesota experiment station, has increased the yield of that state from 5 to 10 per cent.

The most widely and universally grown varieties of wheat in the United States are Fultz for soft winter, Turkey Red for hard winter, Fife and Blue Stem for hard spring, and Kubanka for durum wheat.

DESCRIPTION AND GROWTH.

Roots. The first root appearing is called the radicle. This and the two other roots that soon appear form the whorl of three seminal or temporary roots. The crown of roots usually

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