22 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



of being stored for indefinite periods. In Egypt, China, and 

 those parts of southern Asia whence we obtain the most 

 ancient records of agriculture, the cereals, wheat, rice, millet, 

 &c., have formed the principal crops for more than five thou- 

 sand years. In Arabia and parts of northern Africa, vv'here 

 the climate prohibits the growth of corn, the date-palm 

 furnishes the principal food of the inhabitants, the fruit being 

 well fitted for storing. In the New World the farinaceous 

 seeds of the quinoa (Chenopodiiim qimioa), and the maize, or 

 Indian corn {Zea mays), originally formed the chief food of 

 the Peruvians and Mexicans. 



Agriculture may thus be divided into two classes — the 

 agriculture of the monotonous climates and the agriculture of 

 the variable climes. From the facts that in the northern 

 portions of the Old World, where the art is of comparatively 

 recent introduction, it commenced at once with the growth of 

 corn, and that even in the Malay Islands, though the ancient 

 plants above referred to are still grown, they are of secondary 

 importance compared with rice, it might at once be inferred 

 that in the ancient Malay agriculture we have the more 

 primitive form of the art. 



Before finally accepting this conclusion, which would at 

 once locate the birthplace of agriculture within or near the 

 equatorial belt, it would be well to look a little more into the 

 history of the art and its probable origin. Going back suffi- 

 ciently far in the history of mankind, we arrive at a period 

 when all existing races subsisted on the wild or spontaneous 

 productions of the earth, '■■ supplying themselves with animal 

 food by hunting and fishing, and vegetable food by collecting 

 wild fruits and roots. In every quarter of the globe evidences 

 of this peiiod have been obtained, either from ancient burial- 

 grounds or other human remains, our knowledge being 

 further extended by a study of still-existing savage races. 

 From these various sources we learn that in ancient as in 

 modern times the dwellers in high latitudes subsisted chiefly 

 on animal food, while those living nearer to the equator were 

 largely dependent on vegetable products. Thus the Esqui- 

 maux, Samoyedes,! and other inhabitants of the Arctic 

 regions have frequently no other vegetable diet than the lichen 

 obtained from the stomach of the reindeer slain in the chase, 

 and a species of fungus is the only vegetable the natives of 

 Tierra del Fuego add to their scanty diet of fish.]: On tlie 

 other hand, the Digger Indians of California, one of the lowest 

 of the aboriginal races, derive their name from the quantities 



* "Origin of Civilization." Sir J. Lubbock. 

 t " Voyage of the ' Vega'." Nordenskiold. 

 I " Voyage of a Naturalist." Darwin. 



