United States Department of Agriculture 
Figs. 24, 25, 26. At the left are the two stalks of smooth, or beardless, wheat; in the center, two of 
bearded wheat; and at the right a stalk of rye. Rye looks like a poor kind of wheat. Barley 
also somewhat resembles wheat (Fig. 46, page 60). Wheat, rye, and barley are members of one 
division of the great grass family. 
CHAPTER THREE 
CEREAL FARMING 
Farming is the chief means of production, for through it we obtain 
all our cereals, vegetables, and fruits, as well as sugar, coffee, nuts, 
cotton, and many other products. The raising of animals is part of 
the work of farming, and this branch of the industry supplies not 
only food, but wool and fur for clothing, and hides to use in many 
ways. 
Since farming is so large a field of production, we shall subdivide 
our study of it, taking up first the most important group of prod- 
ucts, the cereals. 
The importance of cereals as food. Most people look upon grasses 
as fit only for animals to eat, yet we get our chief food from them. 
According to the botanist, grasses include not only the vegetation 
that grows on our meadows and lawns, but also wheat. corn, oats, 
rye, barley, rice, and millet. 
These grasses are called cereals, and their seeds are made into the 
« staff of life *’ for nearly all the peoples of the world. Wheat bread 
forms the chief food of the people of the United States, Great Britain, 
40