TUE BEGINNINGS OF AGRICULTURE. 687 



less favorable conditions of fertility, their descendants have car- 

 ried agricultural industry to its most advanced point, have con- 

 stituted the theory of rational cultivation, and have most largely 

 developed the system of civilization which is the consequence 

 of it. 



The first people who adopted the agricultural system possessed 

 only a few species of plants borrowed from the local or neighbor- 

 ing flora. Each region, apart from the others, was poor ; only the 

 world was rich. To compose the treasure of our agriculture, it 

 was therefore necessary to collect in each country the best prod- 

 ucts of all the others. Such sharing in common was for a long 

 time impracticable for want of relations between the ethnic 

 groups, which were separated by geographical obstacles or im- 

 passable distances. Gradually profitable exchanges distributed 

 the plants from their native regions into the zones which were 

 suited to receive them. From the time when special centers of 

 cultivation were established, the richness of this fund has gone 

 on increasing. The migrations of peoples, their military expedi- 

 tions, their conquests, the foundations of distant colonies, com- 

 mercial and political relations, and often the intelligent curiosity 

 of travelers gave opportunities for inestimable gains. The Egyp- 

 tians sought for new plants. Queen Hatasu sent a squadron of 

 five ships to the ports of the country of Punt, to bring from there 

 fragrant trees, which she planted in her gardens at Thebes. 

 Thothmes III had represented in one of the chapels of the Temple 

 of Amun at Karnak the various species of plants he had collected 

 during his campaigns in Syria and on the Upper Nile. We may 

 also cite the case of the embassy of Chang-Kien, who, sent in the 

 second century by the Emperar Won Ti into Bactriana, brought 

 back a number of plants with which he enriched the agriculture 

 of the Celestial Empire.* At successive dates, all the agricultural 

 peoples have made their contributions to the common stock and 

 have drawn largely from a constantly increasing patrimony. 



The Indo-European race, with its taste for travel and its ambi- 

 tion for expansion, has especially contributed to the dissemination 

 of useful plants. Originating in the center of Asia, it in the very 

 beginning borrowed from its elder sisters the resources, acquired 

 by them, of an agriculture which was destined to become cosmo- 

 politan. The most ancient Aryan migrations carried into India 

 and into Europe the precious seeds which the race had collected 

 near its cradle. The Phoenicians, Greeks, and the Romans after- 

 ward propagated on the shores of the Mediterranean a choice of 

 fruit trees, vegetables, and industrial plants selected from three 

 continents : the vine, the olive, the almond, the walnut, the chest- 



* The Pen-ts-'ao mentions the bean, the pea, lucerne, sesame, saffron, and the walnut. 



