Isis was supposed to have introduced wheat into Egypt, Demeter into
Greece, and the Emperor Chin-Wong into China, about 3000 B.C. In Europe
it was cultivated before the period of history, as samples have been
recovered from the lacustrine dwellings of Switzerland.
The first wheat raised in the "New World" was sown by the Spaniards on
the island of Isabella, in January, 1494, and on March the 30th the ears
were gathered. The foundation of the wheat harvest of Mexico is said to
have been three or four grains carefully cultivated in 1530, and
preserved by a slave of Cortez. The first crop of Quito was raised by a
Franciscan monk in front of the convent. Garcilasso de la Vega affirms
that in Peru, up to 1658, wheaten bread had not been sold in Cusco.
Wheat was first sown by Goshnold Cuttyhunk, on one of the Elizabeth
Islands in Buzzard's Bay, off Massachusetts, in 1602, when he first
explored the coast. In 1604, on the island of St. Croix, near Calais,
Me., the Sieur de Monts had some wheat sown which flourished finely. In
1611 the first wheat appears to have been sown in Virginia. In 1626,
samples of wheat grown in the Dutch Colony at New Netherlands were shown
in Holland. It is probable that wheat was sown in the Plymouth Colony
prior to 1629, though we find no record of it, and in 1629 wheat was
ordered from England to be used as seed. In 1718 wheat was introduced
into the valley of the Mississippi by the "Western Company." In 1799 it
was among the cultivated crops of the Pimos Indians of the Gila River,
New Mexico.
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