THE WHEAT CULTURIST. 23 



the fathomless deeps of the ocean for the animal prod- 

 uct found among the rocky polyp-trees ; the miner 

 excavates the subterranean shaft for gold; the artists 

 produce articles of the most exquisite workmanship, 

 and like a beast of burden, the porter tenders the services 

 of his physical strength in order to obtain a proportion 

 of the products of the wheat plant. All that we see or 

 hear, all that is done, all that is spoken, written, or 

 thought, is performed directly or indirectly on account 

 of the fruit of that plant, which introduced, developed, 

 and to-day maintains civilization." 



OLD GREVECOSUR'S SPEECH. 



When the aborigines of our country saw the refine- 

 ment of character, the spirit of philanthropy, which 

 possessed the hearts of their white neighbors, their ob- 

 serving chieftain, Crevecoeur, of the now extinct tribe 

 of the JVIississais, is said to have addressed his people in 

 the following pathetic remarks : 



" Do you not see the whites living upon seeds, while 

 we eat flesh? That flesh requires more than thirty 

 moons to grow up, and is then often scarce. Each 

 of the wonderful seeds they sow in the earth returns 

 them an hundred fold. The flesh on which we subsist 

 has four legs to escape from us, while we have but two 

 to pursue and capture it. The grain remains where the 

 white men sow it, and growls. With them winter is a 

 period of rest ; while with us, it is the time of laborious 

 hunting. For these reasons they have so many chil- 

 dren, and live longer than we do. I say, therefore, unto 

 every one that will hear me, that before the cedars of 

 our village shall have died down with age, and the 



