WATER CROPS 



ERTILITY dwells at the 

 water side, where the 

 essential conditions for 

 growth m o i s t u r e , 

 warmth, air and light 

 abound. There Nature's 

 crops are never failing. 

 They are abundant crops 

 compared with which the 

 herbage of the uplands 

 appear thin and scatter- 

 ing . If they are not our 

 crops, that is not Nature's 

 fault but our own. We 

 have given all our toil and care to the cultivation of the 

 products of the land, and have left the waters to pro- 

 duce what they might, often in the face of neglect and 

 injury. 



Time was when the waters furnished to man the most 

 dependable part of his livelihood fish and oysters and 

 edible roots and excellent furs. That was before the 

 days of agriculture. Primitive man, while gathering 

 his fruit and roots and grains from the wild, saw the 

 supply failing and planted a garden to increase his 

 sustenance. Had he by like means endeavored to 

 supplement his stores of water products, we might now 

 have had a water culture, comparable with agriculture. 

 A number of native water plants furnished food to 

 the red men in America. One of these, the wild rice 



379 



