The introduction of wheat into the British and French settlements in North American was coeval with their occupation by the colonist, wheat, barley and rice, the grand vegetable sustenance of population, being all exotic plants.
In the early 1800s, Pennsylvania, New York, and Virginia were known as the bread basket of the colonies, producing more than 60 percent of the new nation’s crop.
By 1884, nearly 30 cultivars of wheat were grown in only one county in New York State, and a number of cultivars were reportedly grown in Ohio by 1858 and in Missouri by 1881.
Marquis, outstanding bread wheat, was introduced into the United States in 1912 from Canada. It had been bred in Canada from a cross of Red Fife and Calcutta.
The introduction of Turkey hard red winter wheat into the United States by Russian Mennonite immigrants in 1872 – 1874 provided the basis for hard red winter wheat industry in the United States. These immigrants settled in Marion County, Kansas, in 1874 and produced their first crop of wheat in 1874-75.
Today, most of the hard red winter wheat presently grown in the United States can be traced in a large part to this introduction of the Mennonites.
History of wheat in United States
