52 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



capacity of soils and climates to produce a diversity of crops is one 

 of the greatest resources for an increased food supply. As yet, 

 multiplicity of crops as a means of augmenting the supply of food 

 has received little attention and I want to bring you to a better 

 realization of its possibilities in the half hour at my disposal, 

 attempting to show, in particular, how greatly the necessities and 

 luxuries of life can be increased by the domestication of wild escu- 

 lents; by better distribution of little-known food plants; and by 

 the amelioration of crops we now grow through breeding them with 

 wild or little-known relatives. 



Few, even among those who have given, special attention to 

 agricultural crops, have a proper conception of the number that 

 might be grown. De Candolle, one of the few men of science who 

 have made a systematic study of domesticated plants, and whose 

 *' Origin of Cultivated Plants" has long been sanctioned by science 

 as authoritative, is much to blame for the current misconception 

 as to the number of plants under cultivation. By conveying the 

 idea that his book covers the whole field, De Candolle prepared 

 the ground for a fine ' crop of misunderstandings. Humboldt 

 stated in 1807 that, " The origin, the first home of the plants most 

 useful to man, and which have accompanied him from the remotest 

 epochs, is a secret as impenetrable as the dwelling of all our domesti- 

 cated animals." 



De Candolle set out to disprove Humboldt. He assorted culti- 

 vated plants in 247 species and ascertained very accurately the 

 histories of 244 out of the total number. De Candolle's thorough- 

 ness, patience, judgment, affluence of knowledge, clear logic and 

 felicity of expression, make his book so trustworthy and valuable 

 in most particulars, that we have accepted it as the final word in 

 all particulars, overlooking his faulty enumeration and forgetting 

 that most of his material was gathered more than a half century 

 ago. 



My first task is to establish the fact that the number of plants 

 now cultivated for food the world over is not appreciated in either 

 science or practice. Neither are botanists nor agriculturists 

 seemingly well aware of the number of edible plants now domes- 

 ticated which are in times of stress used in various parts of the 

 world for food, many of which can well be grown for food. Your 

 attention must be called to the number of these. 



