BIOLOGY IN HUMAN AFFAIRS 



use their English wheats, because they blasted and winter- 

 killed; they were forced to use the hand-tilled grain of the 

 Indians. Only when they brought wheat from the colder 

 parts of Europe and Asia were they able to grow satis- 

 factory crops. The apples and grapes from the Old World 

 often failed in the New, and not until countless numbers of 

 seedlings had been grown were fruits developed that 

 could live through the coldest winters and bear edible 

 fruit in the driest summers. 



As the covered wagon went westward, many a fine piece 

 of furniture and valued silverware was left behind, but 

 not the seeds and plants that had been selected through so 

 many trying years and upon which the settlers pinned 

 their hopes in the wider fields and blacker soils of the 

 West. Once again they were met with disappointment. 

 The Harriett pears and Baldwin apples could not survive 

 the winters that were even colder than those in the East. 

 Corn from east of the Alleghenies withered and died, 

 scorched by the hot dry winds of the prairies. The wheat 

 was devoured by grasshoppers, stung by the Hessian fly, 

 sucked dry by plant lice, and rusted and blackened by 

 fungous diseases. Even the flowers that grew with so little 

 care along the seacoast and the inland valleys became 

 discouraged and failed to bloom. 



Again began the laborious process of searching for new 

 crops that would stay green when the old ones withered. 

 As more of the fields were plowed, the grasshoppers came 

 in fewer numbers. And the newcomers gradually learned 

 when to plant to avoid the flies, and how to produce varie- 

 ties that would not rust or smut even in years when the old 

 crops were badly damaged. 



To take the place of the Baldwins and Greenings they 

 found the Jonathan, Winesap, and Ben Davis apples. 

 Red raspberries would not grow, so they found large- 

 fruited plants of the wild black kind. Hardy plums were 



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