. Arthur and Fritz Kahn Collection 1889-1932. Kahn, Fritz 1888-1968; Kahn, Arthur David 1850-1928; Natural history illustrators; Natural history. Wheat The grass that bears our daily bread is synonymous with European civilization. What is the basis of its usefulness, and what is the origin of modern wheat?. by Paul C. Mangclsdorf K / /< WHEAT is the world*s most wide- ly cultivated plant. The wheat phints growing on the earth may even outnumber those of any other seed-bearing land species, wild or do- mesticated. Every month of the year a crop of wheat is maturing somewhere in the World. It
. Arthur and Fritz Kahn Collection 1889-1932. Kahn, Fritz 1888-1968; Kahn, Arthur David 1850-1928; Natural history illustrators; Natural history. Wheat The grass that bears our daily bread is synonymous with European civilization. What is the basis of its usefulness, and what is the origin of modern wheat?. by Paul C. Mangclsdorf K / /< WHEAT is the world*s most wide- ly cultivated plant. The wheat phints growing on the earth may even outnumber those of any other seed-bearing land species, wild or do- mesticated. Every month of the year a crop of wheat is maturing somewhere in the World. It is the major crop of the U. S. and Canada and is grown on sub- stantial acreages in almost every country of Latin America, Europe and Asia. Apparently this grain was one of the earliest plants cultivated by man. Car- bonized kerneis of wheat were found re- cently by the University of Chicago ar- chaeologist Robert Braidwood at^he 6,700-year-old site of Jarmo in ea^tern Iraq, the oldest yillage yet discovered— a village which may have been one of the birthplaces of man*s agriculture. Through the courtesy of Dr. Braidwood I have had an opportunity to study some of these ancient kerneis and compare them with modern kerneis, carbonized to simulate the archaeological speci- r mens. The resemblance between the an- cient and modern grains is remarkable. There were two types of kerneis in the Jarmo site; one turned out to be almost identical with a wild wheat still growing in the Near East, and the other almost exactly like present-day cultivated wheat of the type called einkorn. Evidently there has been no appreciable change in these wheats in the 7,000 years since Jarmo. When he domesticated wheat, man laid the foundations of western civiliza- tion. No civilization worthy of the name has ever been founded on any agricul- tural basis other than the cereals. The ancient cultures of Babylonia and Egypt, of Roma and Greece, and later those of northem and western Europe, were all based
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