# What was the deal with "Siberian Wheat"?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-siberian-wheat/671837>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 21, 2013, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-siberian-wheat/671837 "2013-10-21T17:40:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2013, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-siberian-wheat/671837/1 "2013-10-21T17:40:38Z")

</div>

A quote from one of the Antifederalist papers, specifically “What Does History Teach, Part II”:

“I should not compare the new Constitution to a house. I should fetch my simile from the country and compare it to Siberian Wheat (otherwise called Siberian cheat) which is known to have been the most praised, the most dear, the most worthless, and most short-lived thing that was ever adopted.”

I gather that there was some fad or craze for Siberian wheat touted as some super crop, which turned out to not be all that. But does anyone have more specifics?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2013, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-deal-with-siberian-wheat/671837/2 "2013-10-22T01:05:14Z")

</div>

From A letter from John Adams to Elkanah Watson, August 11, 1812:

> [@](#):
>
> Siberian wheat, my brother farmer, is a very small object to fellow subjects that comprehend the whole globe and all our species. It is worthy attention, however, and fair experiment. During the Revolutionary war, when you were in Europe, Siberian wheat was much in vogue in this town. Mr. Josiah Quincy, the grandfather of the present member of Congress, procured and sowed a few bushels of it. He succeeded very well, had a fine crop which suffered nothing from the Hessian fly, mildew, blasting, or weavel. Enthusiasm was excited in the neighborhood; all he could spare was purchased at a high price for sowing. My wife purchased some bushels-others more. Quincy himself sowed the greatest part of all he had. Expectations were high that it would become the staple of New-England. The next year we all failed, every plant of it blasted, and seed, labor, and all were totally lost.