Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898)
WHEAT. In Palestine this most important of all grains was sown after barley, late in the fall. It was not only scattered broadcast and then ploughed, harrowed, or trodden in, Isa 32:20, but it seems, according to the Hebrew of Isa 28:25, to have been planted in rows or drills, as it certainly often is at present in Syria. Wheat-harvest is about a month later than barley-harvest, usually in May.
Sixty, or even one hundred, grains may sometimes be counted in an ear of this cereal, according to Tristram, and, as several stalks may spring from a single seed with thorough cultivation, the increase of Matt 13:8 is not at all incredible. Wheat is still produced for export east of the Jordan, where probably Minnith, Eze 27:17, was located. The whole land once produced vast quantities of this cereal, and will again when agriculture is protected and encouraged. Deut 8:8.
In the days of Jacob this grain was already so much cultivated in Mesopotamia that "wheat-harvest" denoted a well-known season. Gen 30:14. The many-eared variety, or mummy-wheat, still sometimes cultivated in Egypt and represented on its monuments, is referred to in Pharaoh's dream. Egyptian Wheat. Gen 41:22. " See Corn, Thresh.