Question

Wheat is another member of the grass family. Wheat grain is used to produce flour. The mass of grain is sometimes used as a measure of the amount of photosynthesis which has taken place in the wheat plant. However, it is better to use the mass of the whole plant as the measure. Explain why

Answer 1

Explanation:

Wheat has always formed one of the main constituents of the

human diet, and can be traced back to 10,000 BC. Wheat has

been found in pits where human settlements flourished over

8,000 years ago. The Egyptians were the first to produce risen

loaves using yeast, probably by accident when beer was used

to mix dough instead of water. In the British Museum, you can

see actual loaves that were made and baked in Egypt over

5,000 years ago.

From rocks to millstones, man has refined the method of

grinding grains of wheat to make flour and produce risen

bread loaves over the ages. In the Middle Ages, windmills and

watermills were built closer to where the grain was grown. Crop

rotation was also introduced at this time. The first rotations only

alternated grassland and crops, but the big breakthrough in the

18th century was the ‘Norfolk four-course’ which introduced the

sequence of wheat/root crop/fallow/beans.

In 1701 Jethro Tull invented the mechanical seed drill. This

resulted in farming becoming less labour-intensive and allowed

farmers to grow crops on a much larger scale.

The period from 1900 onwards has resulted in crop-breeding

advances that have increased the quality and yield of wheat,

and made production more efficient by improving management

and mechanisation.