[25] In the United States there are about seven wheat-districts, each characterized by particular varieties that grow best in the given locality. In the New England and most of the middle Atlantic division Early Genesee Giant, Jones Winter Fife, and Fultz are chiefly grown. In the Southern States Fultz, Fulcaster, Purple Straw, and May are foremost. In the north central group of States Early Red Clawson, Poole, Dawson's Golden Chaff, Buda Pest, and Fultz are common. In the Dakotas and Minnesota Scotch Fife and Velvet Blue Stem (both spring wheats) are generally planted. In Kansas and Texas and the adjacent locality the principal varieties are Turkey, Fulcaster, and Mediterranean (all winter wheats). In California and the southern plateau region Sonora, California Club, and Defiance are the principal kinds (all winter wheats). In Washington and Oregon Little Club, Red Chaff, and Blue Stem (which are either winter or spring) are the main varieties.

[26] Sometimes the owner sends it to the nearest elevator at tide-water where the grain is stored, not in bulk, but in the original packages, subject to his demand. In the course of a month or six weeks it absorbs so much moisture that the gain in weight more than pays the storage charges.

[27] The elevators are equipped with "legs" or long spouts, within which belts with metal scoops transfer the grain from car to vessel or vice versa. The elevators at Buffalo will fill a canal-boat in an hour's time, or load six grain-cars in five minutes. A large whaleback steamship may be relieved of its 200,000 bushels in about three hours. Most of the east-bound wheat of the Middle West is transferred to the seaboard by rail, but that of the northwest, which forms the chief part of the crop, is shipped from Duluth through the St. Marys Falls Canal to Buffalo, where it is transferred to cars or to canal-boats. New York is the leading export market, but Boston, New Orleans, Galveston, Baltimore, and Philadelphia are also important shipping ports.

[28] The following is approximately the yield of the chief wheat-growing countries in bushels per acre:

Denmark42
England29
New Zealand26
Germany23.2
Holland & Belgium21.5
Hungary18.5
France19.5
Austria16.3
Canada15.5
United States12.3
Argentina12.2
Italy12.1
Australia10
India9.2
Russia8.6
Algeria7.5

The low average in Australia, India, and Algeria is due mainly to lack of rainfall; in the United States and Russia, mainly to unskilful cultivation.

[29] It seems to have been introduced into Turkey from India about the latter part of the fifteenth century, after which it was occasionally heard of in Europe as "Turkey corn."

[30] The "tortilla," the national bread of the Mexican, consists of a thick corn-meal paste pressed into thin wafers between the hands, and baked on hot slabs of stone. The corn-meal "mush" of the American, the "polenta" of the Italian, and the "mamaliga" of the Rumanian are all practically corn-meal boiled to a thick paste in water.

[31] The gin, invented by Eli Whitney in 1793, enabled one man to do by machinery about the same amount of work as previously had required one hundred laborers. For want of the laws necessary to protect his invention, Whitney was defrauded of the profits arising from it. Neither Congress nor the courts gave him any relief from the numerous infringements, and he died a poor man.

[32] The commercial distinction is a sensible one: hair is hard, crisp, straight, and does not felt; wool is soft, curly, and felts readily.