20 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



the ripened harvest, is scarcely greater in Sweden than 

 is experienced in Norway. 



Somewhat farther to the south, rye in a great 

 measure disappears, and wheat becomes the principal 

 material used for human food. France, England, 

 the southern part of Scotland, part of Germany and 

 Hungary, and the lands of Western and Middle 

 Asia, fall within this description. In most of these 

 countries the vine is also successfully cultivated ; and 

 wine forming a substitute for beer, the raising of 

 barley is consequently much neglected. 



Still farther southward, wheat is found in abun- 

 dance, but maize and rice are also produced, and enter 

 largely among the constituents of human food. Por- 

 tugal and Spain, that part of France which borders 

 on the Mediterranean Sea, Italy, and Greece, are 

 thus circumstanced. 



Still farther to the east, in Persia and Northern 

 India, Arabia, Nubia, Egypt, and Barbary, wheat 

 is indeed found; but maize, rice, and millet form the 

 principal materials for human sustenance. On the 

 plains near the Caspian Sea, in the province of Geor- 

 gia, rice, wheat, barley, and millet are raised abun- 

 dantly, and with very little culture. In the more ele- 

 vated parts of those districts rye is sometimes culti- 

 vated, but oats entirely disappear, the mules and hor- 

 ses being fed on barley. 



The mode of culture followed at the present day 

 in Egypt is exceedingly simple, and calls but for a 

 small amount of labour. All that is required for 

 raising barley and wheat, is, when the inundations 

 of the Nile have subsided, to throw the seed upon 

 the mud; if this should be thought too hard and stiff, 

 the grain is lightly ploughed in, and no farther care 

 or culture is then required until the ripening of the 

 produce, which usually happens from the beginning to 

 the end of April. 



