624 SOME OF THE POSSIBILITIES OF ECONOMIC BOTANY. 
cious work done by Thomas Andrew Knight shows to what extent this 
can be done.* But we must confess that it would be absolutely impos- 
sible to predict with certainty how long or how short would be the 
time before new cereals or acceptable equivalents for them would be 
provided. Upheld by the confidence which I have in the intelligence, 
ingenuity, and energy of our Experiment Stations, I may say that the 
time would not probably exceed that of two generations of our race, or 
half a century. 
In now laying aside our hypothetical illustration, I venture to ask 
why it is that our Experiment Stations and other institutions dealing 
with plants and their improvement do not undertake investigations 
like those which I have sketched? Why are not some of the grasses 
other than our present cereals studied with reference to their adoption 
as food grains? One of these species will naturally suggest itself to 
you all, namely, the Wild Rice of the Lakes.t Observations have 
shown that were it not for the difficulty of harvesting these grains 
which fall too easily when they are ripe, they might be utilized. But 
attentive search might find or educe some variety of Zizania with a 
more persistent grain and a better yield. There are two of our sea- 
shore grasses which have excellent grains, but are of small yield 
Why are not these, or better ones which might be suggested by obser- 
vation, taken in hand? _ 
The reason is plain. We are all content to move along in lines of 
least resistance, and are disinclined to make a fresh start. Itis merely , 
leaving well enough alone, and so far as the cereals are concerned itis 
indeed well enough. The generous grains of modern varieties of wheat 
and barley compared with the well-preserved charred vestiges found in 
Greece by Schliemann,i and in the lake dwellings,§ are satisfactory in 
* A Selection from the Physiological and Horticultural Papers, published in the Trans- 
actions of the Royal and Horticultural Societies, by the late Thomas Andrew Knight, 
esq., president of the Hort. Soc. London (London), 1841. 
t Lllustrations of the Manners and Customs and Condition of the North American Indians. 
By George Catlin, London, 1876. A reprint of the account published in 1841 of travels 
in 1832-1840. ‘‘Plate 278 is a party of Sioux, in bark canoes (purchased of the Chip- 
pewas), gathering the wild rice, which grows in immense fields around the shores of 
the rivers and lakes of these northern regions, and used by the Indians as an article 
of food. The mode of gathering it is curious, and, as seen in the drawing, one woman 
paddles the canoe, whilst another, witha stick in each hand, bends the rice over the 
canoe with one and strikes it with the other, which shakes it into the canoe, which 
is constantly moving along until it is filled.” Vol. 1m, p. 208. 
}Schliemann’s carbonized specimens exhumed in Greece are said to be ‘ very hard, 
fine-grained, sharp, very flat on grooved side, different from any wheats now known.” 
Am. Antiq., 1880, 66. The carbonized grains in the Peabody Museum at Cambridge, 
Mass., are small. 
§ Prehistoric Times, as illustrated by ancient remains and the manners and customs 
of modern savages. By John Lubbock, Bart. (New York), 4th edn., 1886. “Three 
varieties of wheat were cuitivated by the Lake Dwellers, who also possessed two 
kinds of barley and two of millet. Of these the most ancient and most important 
