Posted on 11/11/2008 5:08:14 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=James%20Mellaart&page=1
I Must get a copy....
I grew up in the wheat State,...plowed, planted and harvested the grain...and I am still fascinated by it.
Hays is the heart of the imported hard Red Winter wheat ....brought over by immigrants from Russia via Germany in the mid 1800's....
*************************************some history******************************
Children in Russia hand-picked the first seeds of this famous winter wheat for Kansas. They belonged to Mennonite Colonies preparing to emigrate from the steppes to the America prairies. A peace-loving sect, originally from Holland, the Mennonites had gone to the Crimea from Prussia in 1790 when Catherine the Great offered free lands, military exemption and religious freedom. They prospered until these privileges were threatened in 1871. Three years later they emigrated to Kansas, where the Santa Fe R.R. offered thousands of acres on good terms in McPherson, Harvey, Marion & Reno counties, and where the legislature passed a bill which exempted religious objectors from military service. Within a month after landing in New York the Mennonites planted the red~gold grains their children had selected. The harvest was the first of the great crops of hard Turkey Red and its derivatives that have made Kansas the Granary of the Nation.
I dumped mine along with a ton of other books I had in my library when I had to sell my home and move back to Philly. No space to set up a library area.
From the old to the new world. And what a blessing it has been over time. Wheat surely is among the best grain sources based on it’s food value.
Interesting history of how these particular strains of wheat had entered the American heartland.
Mellaart’s book has a (probably b&w) pic of this:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/694010/posts?page=38#38
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