CHAPTER XII 

 CROP-PLANTS 



INTRODUCTION 



THE great majority of natives depend for subsistence on their 

 own food crops rather than on the production of commodities 

 for the market. Hence greater knowledge of these food crops is 

 important. This depends upon research of the following types: 

 I. Surveys of the numerous strains of each crop, and of their 

 suitability to different conditions. 2. Improvement in methods of 

 cultivation. 3. Research on the control of disease. 4. Dietetic 

 work on the nutritive value of foods. 5. The breeding of food plants 

 to increase yield, nutritive value and resistance to disease. Several 

 of these subjects have received special attention in parts of the 

 continent, and a few examples of the work done are mentioned 

 below. But on the whole, until within recent years, more effort has 

 been directed to the improvement of cash crops than to that of 

 native food crops, possibly owing to the more immediate results 

 which can be obtained in the form of increased revenues. 



It is generally acknowledged that native crops grown in small 

 plots have a measure of natural protection from disease through 

 the obstacles to the distribution of causative organisms, created by 

 native agricultural methods. These obstacles are removed where 

 large compact areas are farmed under a single crop, as for export 

 purposes . Native food crops are by no means immune from disease, 

 however, and the plant pathologist, combined with the breeder, 

 must be called upon to find the solution. The breeding of resistant 

 strains is usually more satisfactory than the discovery of direct 

 methods of controlling disease. 



Although little has been published in regard to native food 

 crops, much information, especially on the economic side, has been 



