DEBT OF AGRICULTUEE TO AMERICA COOK 493 



Potatoes from the high altitudes, preserved by freezing and drying, 

 are still carried down the eastern valle3^s on the backs of llamas and 

 exchanged for coca. Some of the high-altitude varieties of potatoes 

 are too bitter to be eaten in the fresh state, but are suited for drying 

 into chufios, as the mummified potatoes are called. 



The plant domestications apparently were more ancient in America 

 than in the Old World. The lapse of time is indicated by the fact 

 that several of the American cultivated plants are not known to 

 exist in a wild state. Several have reached the condition of seed- 

 lessness and some have lost even the tendency to produce flowers. 

 Many of the high-altitude crops of Peru are specialized for particular 

 conditions and have not been established in any other countries. 



The discovery and conquest of new continents beyond the Atlantic 

 was an event that has overwhelmed and preoccupied the imagination 

 of historians in recent centuries, but the plant treasures of the 

 New World are still to be appreciated. Spain was in advance of 

 other European countries at the time of discovery. The period 

 of Arab rule in Spain had witnessed a revival or a reintroduction of 

 many of the arts of agriculture, including irrigation, as developed in 

 north Africa, Egypt, and Syria. Neither Spain nor the rest of 

 Europe was able to form any conception of the importance of the 

 new plant world of America. Only a few of our modern historic 

 writers have perceived the significance of the discovery of a new 

 economic flora in America as affording new materials of human 

 advancement which the Western Hemisphere has contributed to the 

 enrichment of our European civilization. Though only a partial 

 utilization of the American cultivated plants has yet taken place, 

 the entire world has profited and vastly increased its production by 

 using plants that were domesticated in America. 



That we as north Europeans should continue to attach homeland 

 sentiments to the plants that came to America with the first settlers 

 is partly a misunderstanding of the past. Agriculture was not origi- 

 nal with the northern races or even indigenous in Europe, as archeo- 

 logical investigations have shown. The traditional Old-World 

 cereals — barley, wheat, and rye — were not natives of any part of 

 Europe, but of Asiatic origin. A long succession of primitive 

 peoples have been traced in Europe, going back to the glacial periods, 

 variously estimated from 20,000 to 100,000 years ago, but with no 

 indications of agriculture before the so-called Neolithic people come 

 into Europe, in the late prehistoric period, 6,000 to 10,000 years ago. 

 Moreover, this invading race had passed the stage of first beginnings 

 in agriculture, being proficient in irrigation, terracing, and mega- 

 lithic stonework. The subsequent history of Europe was not marked 

 by advances in agriculture, but rather by decline. In Greece, for 



