Extension Column

Plant scientists have been employing science to improve crops for centuries. David Harris from the University of London believes that gatherers began selectively breeding wheat about 12,500 B.C. Cutting edible grasses with rock-edged sickles they took the grain-bearing grasses home. Only the strongest kernels of wheat or barley were left on the stalk because they may have been hard to cut. Those plants had stronger stalks and those plant seeds fell to the soil nearest the Neolithic campsites, and after sprouting and growing, they produced plants with maybe stronger straw and heartier kernels....