PLANTS AND OURSELVES 13 



cultivation has made the plants of the fields and of the 

 orchards very different from those wild plants which once 

 they resembled. It is this cultivation of plants which is 

 so important a part of human history. This, more than 

 anything else, has brought into the world such peace and 

 prosperity as we have. This, more than anything else, 

 has made man's life more than a mere struggle for exist- 

 ence. If the whole history of the cultivation of plants 

 could be written, it would be a sort of history of man 

 himself. 



Some thousands of years ago all men lived a good deal 

 as the Indians lived when Columbus discovered America. 

 They were hunters and fishers. They roamed over the 

 land. Their food came from the animals which they 

 killed and from the wild fruit and roots which they gathered 

 as they went 

 about. The only 

 advantage which 

 they had over the 

 wild beasts was 

 that they had 

 better brains. 

 They learned to 

 remember and 

 they learned to 

 reason. They 

 learned which 

 plants were good 



for food and A native home in the tropics. The buildings are com- 



which Were not. posed entirely of materials obtained directly from 



Thev remembered P lants wni ch grow near by. In the foreground is a 



* patch of taro, a plant whose underground parts are 



when and where much used for food. 



