THE PLANT WORLD 185 



The Birthplace of Agriculture. 



By O. W. Barrett. 



In a recent article on "The American Origin of Agriculture," Mr. 

 O. F. Cook brings forward the strongest evidences, if not proofs, which 

 show that the idea of cultivating plants for food originated with the 

 inhabitants of the old Caribbean region. Archeologists and geologists 

 have been preparing us for this startling announcement ; we have been 

 taught that the cities of Central America were in need of reforms before 

 the Sphinx was blocked out, and it has been proved that Central America 

 and the West Indies are the remains of an Atlantic-like continent which 

 was alternately raised and sunken during the Tertiary epoch. But it 

 seems a still higher honor that the middle America should have been the 

 cradle of the most important of all the sciences. 



The aboriginal inhabitants of Polynesia and the Orient were primarily 

 fruit- eaters, while the remote ancestors of the Incas, Aztecs, and Arawaks 

 subsisted largely upon roots. It is obvious that savage tribes would not 

 attempt the cultivation of fruits ; whereas the quick-growing roots and 

 grains could be easily managed by semi-nomadic races like the prehistoric 

 Indian tribes of Tropical America. Furthermore, " the origin of the 

 agricultures and civilizations of the valleys of the Nile and Euphrates is 

 no longer sought by ethnologists among Semitic shepherds or more northern 

 peoples, but among a seafaring race which has been traced to southern 

 Arabia, and whose language has been found to have analogies with the 

 ancient Polynesian tongue of Madagascar." Now, "the most important 

 food-plants of the Polynesians were seven in number — the taro, yam, 

 sweet potato, sugar-cane, banana, breadfruit, and cocoanut, of which 

 six, or all except the breadfruit, existed in pre-Spanish America, and of 

 these, five, or all except the cocoanut, were propagated only from 

 cuttings." 



In a special bulletin issued by the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Mr. 

 Cook has shown us that the cocoanut, a cosmopolitan plant in Columbus's 

 time, originated in northern Colombia. Proofs are numerous of the 

 prehistoric intercourse between the Orient and Central America via 

 Polynesia. Therefore it is easy to understand how the food-plants of 

 the old Caribbean country were gradually disseminated throughout the 

 Pacific Islands and southern Arabia. 



There is one apparent glaring exception to this ' ' American export ' ' 

 idea — the banana. It is highly probable, however, that the native East 

 Indian banana was first cultivated for the starch of its large bulb-like 

 rootstock, in harmony with the imported American idea of root crops ; 

 in fact, this old custom is still practised in Abyssinia and New Caledonia ; 



