FRUITS 



63 



fixed place for habitation. The cultivation of grains and cereals gave them 

 a store of food which could be used at times when other food was scarce. 

 The word cereal (derived from Ceres, the Roman Goddess of Agriculture) 

 shows the importance of this crop to Roman civilization. From earliest 

 times the growing of grain and the progress of civilization have gone hand 

 in hand. As nations have advanced in power, their dependence upon the 

 cereal crops has been greater and greater. 



" Indian corn," says John Fiske, in The Discovery of America, " has played 

 a most important part in the discovery of the New World. It could be 



-^^ 



/ ^ 



i "%. 



WHEAT \ 



/60 to 640 bushels per sauare mile '\ 



over 640 » « „ . 



't 



Wheat Crop in United States — Percentage Source 



20 30 40 50 M 7,0 



30 90 



Minnesota Kansas N. Dak. S. Dak. Neb. O. Cal.Ind.Mo.Pa. 



Other States 



planted without clearing or plowing the soil. There was no need of thresn- 

 ing or winnowing. Sown in tilled land, it yields more than twice as 

 much food per acre as any other kind of grain. This was of incalculable 

 advantage to the English settlers in New England, who would have found it 

 much harder to gain a secure foothold upon the soil if they had had to begin 

 by preparing it for wheat or rye." 



To-day, in spite of the great wealth which comes from our mineral 

 resources, live stock, and manufactured products, the surest index of our 

 country's prosperity is the size of the wheat and com crop. According to 

 the last census, the amount of capital invested in agriculture was over 

 twenty billion dollars, while that invested in manufactures was less than 

 one half that amount. 



