8 AGKICULTUKE AND EURAL-LIFE DAY. 



starving multitude may receive food in plenty. It is an interesting 

 fact that civilization had its birth in the great river valleys of the 

 Avorld, and the great nations of the world have been those that con- 

 trolled the rich food-producing lands. 



We have only a few records of a great civilization that once lived 

 in the Euphrates Valley, where Babylon and Nineveh contended 

 with one another, and where, it is said, the wheat of the world had 

 its origin. 



From this very ancient beginning nations have followed one an- 

 other in rapid succession, each one contesting for the great valleys, 

 only to be soon captured and destroyed by a more vigorous people. 

 Jacob's sons, driven by hunger, went down into the valley of the 

 Nile begging for food. Their descendants, more than a million 

 strong, having been held captive by the more powerful Egyptians, 

 broke away from their captors and reoccupied the valley of the 

 Jordan — the land of Canaan, Thence came our first lesson in careful 

 food selection and preparation. 



The overcrowded Greeks colonized the fertile districts along the 

 shores of the Mediterranean. The Romans went to war with the 

 Carthaginians for the great grain fields of Sicily, and finally annexed 

 the Nile Valley to their great empire. The congested tribes along 

 and beyond the Danube pressed down into the fertile valleys of 

 Italy, France, and Spain and overcame the Romans. Wanderers 

 from the cold north and from across the Rhine overcame northern 

 France, England, Scotland, and Ireland. Several centuries later a 

 way was found to America, and the natives of Europe pushed their 

 underfed population over into America and took from the Indians 

 the fertile valleys along the coast. And when the coastal plain was 

 settled and all the river bottoms taken up the population still pushed 

 westward, fighting the .Indian and the bear until the fertile valleys 

 of the Mississippi and its tributaries were revealed. It took only 

 about a centuiy for the valley to become occupied and its products 

 to find their way into the markets of the world. But the struggle 

 for river valleys did not stop. During the past half century another 

 great valley was discovered — the La Plata of South America — and 

 the grain of this great valley feeds millions of Europeans, who would 

 be hungry Avithout it. 



THE STRUGGLE FOR FOOD. 



The first instinct of every being is to secure food for the nourish- 

 ment of its body. The moment any living thing appears in the 

 world it begins to feel about for food. The infant animal makes 

 its wants known by its movements, and the little plant begins to send 

 its tiny rootlets around in the soil. The body is extremely sensitive 



