Editing Wheat (section)

=== 19th century ===

[[File:Wheat prices in England, OWID.svg|thumb|upright=1.6|Wheat prices in England, 1264–1996<ref>{{cite web |title=Wheat prices in England |url=https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/wheat-prices-in-england |website=Our World in Data |access-date=5 March 2020}}</ref>]]

Wheat became a central agriculture endeavor in the worldwide [[British Empire]] in the 19th century, and remains of great importance in Australia, Canada and India.<ref>{{cite book |last=Palmer |first=Alan |title=Dictionary of the British Empire and Commonwealth |year=1996 |pages=193, 320, 338}}</ref> In Australia, with vast lands and a limited work force, expanded production depended on technological advances, especially regarding irrigation and machinery. By the 1840s there were 900 growers in [[South Australia]]. They used "Ridley's Stripper", a reaper-harvester perfected by [[John Ridley (inventor)|John Ridley]] in 1843,<ref>{{cite book |last=Ridley |first=Annie E. |title=A Backward Glance: The Story of John Ridley, a Pioneer |publisher=J. Clarke |year=1904 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B44WAAAAYAAJ&dq=john+Ridley+australia+wheat&pg=PP21 |page=21}}</ref> to remove the heads of grain. <!-- By 1850, South Australia had become the granary for the region; soon wheat farming spread to [[Victoria (state)|Victoria]] and [[New South Wales]], with heavy exports to Great Britain.--> In Canada, modern farm implements made large scale wheat farming possible from the late 1840s. By 1879, [[Saskatchewan]] was the center, followed by [[Alberta]], [[Manitoba]] and [[Ontario]], as the spread of railway lines allowed easy exports to Britain. By 1910, wheat made up 22% of Canada's exports, rising to 25% in 1930 despite the sharp decline in prices during the worldwide [[Great Depression]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Furtan |first1=W. Hartley |last2=Lee |first2=George E. |title=Economic Development of the Saskatchewan Wheat Economy |date=1977 |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1744-7976.1977.tb02882.x |journal=Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics |volume=25 |issue=3 |pages=15–28 |doi=10.1111/j.1744-7976.1977.tb02882.x|bibcode=1977CaJAE..25...15F }}</ref> Efforts to expand wheat production in South Africa, Kenya and India were stymied by low yields and disease. However, by 2000 India had become the second largest producer of wheat in the world.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Joshi |first1=A. K. |last2=Mishra |first2=B. |last3=Chatrath |first3=R. |last4=Ortiz Ferrara |first4=G. |last5=Singh |first5=Ravi P. |date=2007 |title=Wheat improvement in India: present status, emerging challenges and future prospects |url=https://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10681-007-9385-7 |journal=Euphytica |volume=157 |issue=3 |pages=431–446 |doi=10.1007/s10681-007-9385-7 |s2cid=38596433}}</ref> In the 19th century the American wheat frontier moved rapidly westward. By the 1880s 70% of American exports went to British ports. The first successful [[grain elevator]] was built in Buffalo in 1842.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Otter |first1=Chris |title=Diet for a large planet |date=2020 |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |location=USA |isbn=978-0-226-69710-9 |page=51 }}</ref> The cost of transport fell rapidly. In 1869 it cost 37 cents to transport a bushel of wheat from [[Chicago]] to [[Liverpool]]. In 1905 it was 10 cents.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Otter |first1=Chris |title=Diet for a large planet |date=2020 |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |location=USA |isbn=978-0-226-69710-9 |page=69}}</ref>