THE CEREALS AND GRASSES
Of all the plants connected with the economies of mankind the grasses
hold easily the first place. Not only are the seeds of certain species
the chief food of nearly all peoples, but the plants themselves are the
food of most animals whose flesh is used as meat. Wheat, maize, and rice
are used by all except a very few peoples; and about all the animals
used for food, fish and mollusks excepted, are grain eaters, or grass
eaters, or both.
The grasses of the Plains in Texas, the Veldt in South Africa, and the
hills of New Zealand by nature's processes are converted into meat that
feeds the great cities of western Europe and the eastern United States.
The corn of the Mississippi valley becomes the pork which, yielded from
the carcasses of more than forty million swine, is exported to half the
countries of the world. Even the two and one-half billion pounds of wool
consumed yearly is converted grass.
=Wheat.=--The wheat of commerce is the seed of several species of cereal
grass, one of which, _Triticum sativum_, is the ordinary cultivated
plant. Wild species are found in the highlands of Kurdistan, in Greece,
and in Mesopotamia, that are identical with species cultivated to-day.
It is thought that the cultivation of the grain began in Mesopotamia,
but it is also certain that it was grown by the Swiss lake-dwellers far
back in prehistoric times. It is the "corn" Joseph's brothers sought to
buy when they went to Egypt, and the records of its harvesting are
scattered all over the pages of written history.
[Illustration: THE GRAIN CROP--MODERN METHODS OF CULTIVATION AND
HARVESTING]
Of the one and one-half billion people that constitute the world's
population, more than one-third, or about eight times the population of
the United States, are consumers of wheat-bread; and this number is
yearly increasing by twelve million. Moreover, each individual of this
aggregate consumes yearly very nearly one barrel of flour, or about four
and one-half bushels of wheat. In other words, it requires somewhat more
than two billion three hundred million bushels of wheat each year to
supply the world's demand.[23] As a matter of fact the world's crop is
yearly consumed so nearly to the danger-line that very often the
"visible supply," or the amount known to be in the market, is reduced to
a few million bushels.
Wheat will grow under very wide ranges of climate, but it thrives best
between the parallels of 25° and 55°. In a soil very rich in vegetable
mould it is apt to "run to stalk." A rather poor clay-loam produces the
best seed,[24] and a hard seed, rather than a heavy stalk, is required.
In the latitude of Kansas the seeds planted in the fall will retain
their vitality through the winter; in the latitude of Dakota they are
"winter-killed," as a rule. Because of this feature two broad classes or
divisions of the crop are recognized in commerce--the winter and the
spring varieties. In general, the spring wheats are regarded as the
better, and this is nearly always the case in localities too cold for
winter wheat. There are exceptions to this rule, however. In the main,
winter wheat ripens first, and is therefore first in the market.[25]
[Illustration: WHEAT]
In Europe the plain that faces the North and Baltic Seas, and that part
which extends through southern Russia, yield the chief part of the
crop, although the plains of the Po, the Danube, and Bohemia furnish
heavy crops. Russia, France, Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Italy are all
wheat states.
In a normal year all Europe produces a little more than one-half
(fifty-five per cent.) of the world's crop. Russia and France excepted,
scarcely another state produces as much as is consumed. Great Britain
consumes her entire crop in three months; Germany in about six months.
France sends a part of her crop to Great Britain and buys of Russia to
fill the deficiency. Russia consumes but very little of her wheat-crop;
it is nearly all sold to the states of western Europe. All Europe
consumes about one billion seven hundred and ten million bushels, but
produces about one billion two hundred and fifty million; the remainder
is supplied by the United States, India, Argentina, Africa, and
Australia.
[Illustration: WHEAT IN UNITED STATES]
In the United States the great bulk of the crop comes from the upper
Mississippi valley and Pacific coast States. About one-third is
consumed where it is grown; more than one-third is required for the
populous centres of the east; a little less than one-third is exported,
of which about ninety per cent. goes to Europe.
[Illustration: WHEAT PRODUCTION]
Much of this, especially the Pacific coast product, is sold unground,
but each year an increasing amount is made into flour. The flour
manufacture of the United States aggregates somewhat more than
160,000,000 barrels yearly--the output of 16,000 flour-mills; the
Pillsbury mills of Minneapolis alone have a capacity of 60,000 barrels a
week. In Europe the Hungarian mills and their output of Bohemian flour
are the chief competitors of the United States.
[Illustration: WHEAT]
The wheat-crop of the Pacific coast has usually been a factor by itself.
On account of the absence of summer rains, the kernel is both plump and
hard. After the threshing process it is sacked and stored in the fields
in which it has grown.[26] Heretofore much of the sacked wheat has been
shipped to European markets by the Cape Horn route, but in late years a
yearly increasing amount is made into flour and sold in China, Japan,
and Siberia. In 1900 nearly two million barrels were thus sent.
East of the Rocky Mountains, after the grain is harvested much of it is
sold to dealers whose storage elevators[27] are scattered all over the
wheat-growing region, and at all great points of shipment, such as
Duluth, Minneapolis, Buffalo, and the eastern seaports. Before the grain
is transferred to the elevators it is inspected and graded, and the cars
which contain it are sealed. This wheat constitutes the "visible
supply." All the business concerning it is transacted by means of
"warehouse receipts," that have almost the currency of ready money.
Banks loan money on them almost to their market value.
Under normal conditions, the cost of growing and harvesting a bushel of
wheat--including interest on the land and deterioration of the
machinery, etc.--is between fifty and fifty-five cents. The market
price, when not affected by "corners" and other gambling transactions,
usually varies between sixty-two and eighty-five cents. The difference
between these figures is divided between the farmer and the "middlemen,"
the share of the latter being in the form of commissions and elevator
charges.
[Illustration: STORING PACIFIC COAST WHEAT]
In addition to bread-making wheat, certain varieties of grain known as
macaroni wheat have a certain importance in the market. Several
varieties are so hardy that they easily resist extremely cold winters;
they will also grow in regions too dry for ordinary varieties. In this
respect they are well adapted to the plains at the eastern base of the
Rocky Mountains. The only detriment is the lack of a steady market.
Macaroni wheat has a very hard kernel and is rich in gluten. It is used
mainly in the manufacture of macaroni paste, but in Europe, when mixed
with three times its weight of ordinary soft wheat, it is much used in
making flour. The small amount now grown in the United States is shipped
mainly to France.
The yield of wheat varies partly with the rainfall, but the difference
is due mainly to skill in cultivation. In western Europe it is from two
to three times as great as in the United States; in Russia and India it
is much less.[28]
The yearly consumption of wheat is increasing very rapidly both in the
United States and in Europe; moreover, China is becoming a
wheat-consuming country. In the United States the consumption is
increasing so rapidly that unless either the acreage of the crop, or
else the yield per acre, is materially increased, there will be no
surplus for export after the year 1931.
[Illustration: THE WHEAT INDUSTRY--GRAIN ELEVATORS AT BUFFALO, NEW
YORK]
In the United States the acreage may be somewhat increased by the
irrigation of arid lands now uncultivated, and by the reclamation of
overflowed and swamp lands. There are far greater possibilities,
however, in the employment of methods of cultivation which will double
the rate of present yield. It is doubtful if there can be much increase
of acreage in the States of the Mississippi Valley, where the acreage
will of necessity be lessened rather than increased.
In western Europe there can be no material increase of the acreage or
the rate of yield; in Russia both are possible. The plains of Argentina
now yield a notable quantity--about one hundred million bushels--and the
amount may be increased. Moreover, a large product may be obtained from
both Uruguay and Paraguay, and southern Brazil, neither one of which
produces a considerable quantity. At the present rate of the increase in
consumption, all of the available land, yielding its maximum, will not
produce a sufficient crop at the end of the twentieth century.
=Corn.=--Maize or Indian corn is the seed of a plant, _Zea mays_, a member
of the grass family. It is not known to exist in a wild state. The
species now cultivated are undoubtedly derived from the American
continent, but evidence is not wanting to show that it was known in
China and the islands of Asia before the discovery of America.[29] The
commercial history of corn begins with the discovery of America. Next to
meat it was the chief food of the native American; next to wheat it is
the chief food-stuff in the American continent to-day.
Corn requires a rich soil and is not so hardy as wheat. It thrives best
in regions having long summers and warm nights. The growing crop is
easily injured by too much rain. It is an abundant crop in the central
Mississippi Valley, but not near the coast; it is very prolific in
Nebraska, but not in Dakota; it thrives in Italy, Austria, and the
Balkan Peninsula, but not in the British Isles and Germany. It is a very
important crop in Australia, and is the staple grain of Mexico. It is
the crop of fourteen-hour days and warm nights.
[Illustration: CORN]
The United States is the chief producer of corn, and from an area of
80,000,000 acres--about that of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois
combined--more than two billion bushels, or four-fifths of the world's
crop, are produced. In the past few years the area planted with corn has
not materially increased, and it is likely to be lessened rather than
increased in the future. From the same acreage, however, the annual
yield, now about twenty-five or thirty bushels per acre, can be more
than doubled by the use of more skilful methods of cultivation.
Corn contains more fatty substance, or natural oil, than wheat, and
therefore has a greater heating power. For this reason it is better than
wheat for out-of-door workers, and it is almost the only cereal
food-stuff consumed in Spanish America. It is also a staple food-stuff
in Egypt. Corn has been used as a bread-stuff in the United States,
Italy, and Rumania[30] for a long time. In recent years, however, its
use has become very popular in Europe.
[Illustration: CORN PRODUCTION]
In the United States by far the greater part of the crop is consumed
where it is grown, being used to fatten swine and cattle. The market
value of a pound of corn is about one-third of a cent; converted into
pork or beef, however, it is worth five or six times as much. By feeding
the corn to stock, therefore, a farmer may turn an unmarketable product
into one for which there is a steady demand.
[Illustration: CORN]
Although corn is not so essential a staple as wheat, it has a much wider
range of usefulness. The starch made from it is considered a delicacy
and is used very largely in America and Europe as an article of food.
Glucose, a cheap but wholesome substitute for sugar, is made from it;
from the oil a substitute for rubber is prepared; smokeless powder and
other explosives are made from the pith of the stalk; while a very
large part of the product is used in the manufacture of liquor.
=Rye.=--Rye is the seed of a cereal grass, _Secale cereale_, a plant
closely resembling wheat in external appearance. Rye will grow in soils
that are too poor for wheat; its northern limit is in latitudes somewhat
greater than that of wheat, also. It is an ideal crop for the sandy
plain stretching from the Netherlands into central Russia, and this
locality produces almost the whole yield. The world's crop is about one
and a half billion bushels, of which Russia produces nearly two-thirds.
Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Japan grow nearly all the rest. It is
consumed where it is grown. In the United States the yearly product is
about twenty-five million bushels, about one-tenth of which is exported
to Europe. Rye-bread is almost always sour, and this fact is its chief
disadvantage.
=Barley.=--Barley is the seed of several species of cereal grass, mainly
_Hordeum distichum_ and _Hordeum vulgare_. It is one of the oldest-used
of bread-stuffs. It can be cultivated farther north than wheat, and
about as far within the tropics as corn; it has, therefore, very wide
limits. Formerly it was much used in northwestern Europe as a
bread-stuff, but in recent years it has been in part supplanted by wheat
and corn. Barley is a most excellent food for horses, and in California
is grown mainly for this purpose. Its chief use is for the manufacture
of the malt used in brewing.
The world's crop of barley is not far from one billion bushels, of which
the United States produces about sixty million bushels. Most of the crop
is grown in the Germanic states of Europe, and in Russia.
=Oats.=--The oat is the seed of a cereal grass, _Avena sativa_ being the
species almost always cultivated. It is not known where the cultivated
species originated, but the earliest known locality is central Europe,
where it was certainly a domestic plant during the Bronze Age. It seems
probable that the species now cultivated in Scotland at one time grew
wild in western Europe; certain it is that wild species are found in
North America.
[Illustration: OATS PRODUCTION]
The oat grows within rather wider limits of latitude, and thrives in a
greater variety of soils than does wheat. Grown in a moist climate,
however, the grain is at its best. The oat-crop of the world aggregates
more than three billion bushels, surpassing that of wheat or corn in
measurement, but not in weight. A small portion of this is used as a
bread-stuff, but the greater part is used as horse-food, for which it is
remarkably adapted.
[Illustration: OATS]
In Europe, Russia is the greatest producer, and its yearly oat harvest
is about one-quarter of the world's crop. The states of northwestern
Europe yield about half the entire crop; the wheat-growing area of the
United States produces the remaining one-fourth. Russia and the United
States are both exporters, the grain going to western Europe. By far the
greater part of the grain is consumed where it is grown.
=Rice.=--Rice is the seed of a cereal grass, _Oryza sativa_. It is claimed
to be native to India, but it is known to have been cultivated in China
for more than five thousand years. It grows wild in Australia and
Malaysia.
Rice requires plenty of warmth and moisture. It is cultivated in the
warmer parts of the temperate zone, but it thrives best in the tropical
regions. In China a considerable upland rice is grown, but for the
greater part it is grown in level lowlands that may be flooded with
water. The preparation of the fields is a matter of great expense, for
they may require flooding and draining at a moment's notice. The crop
matures in from three to six months. After threshing, the seed is still
covered with a husk, and in this form it is known as "paddy."
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
Why is not wheat-growing a profitable industry in the New England
States?--in the plains at the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains?--in
the southern part of the United States?
What are meant by the following terms: No. 1 spring, a corner, a disk
harrow, a cradle, a flail, a separator, futures, warehouse certificates?
In 1855 the price of a barrel of flour in New York or Boston was about
twelve dollars; at the close of the century it was less than five.
Explain how the lessened price came about.
From a census or other report make a list of the ten leading
wheat-producing States; the ten that produce the most corn.
Why are the foreign shipments of oats less than those of wheat?
What are the prices current of wheat, corn, oats, and barley to-day?
FOR STUDY AND REFERENCE
Obtain samples of the different kinds of wheat, oats, barley, corn,
millet, and rice. Put the grain in small, closely stoppered vials;
attach the heads of the small grains to sheets of cardboard of the
proper size.
Read "The Wheat Problem"--Chapter I.
[Illustration: PICKING COTTON, ALABAMA]
[Illustration: TRANSPORTING COTTON FROM WHARF, CHARLESTON, S.C.]
[Illustration: COTTON PRESS YARD, NEW ORLEANS, LA.]