in SOME CONTEASTS 31 



case of the Australians, in that of the primitive 

 tribes of India and of the Philippines, in that of 

 the African negroes, there must be very few people 

 spread over a great area of land. That is, the 

 land must be scantily populated. In Africa all 

 through the ages there have been far more people 

 in the Nile valley than anywhere else in the 

 vast continent. It has been, as we say, the most 

 densely peopled part. One reason for this has 

 always been that the people who lived there, the 

 ancient Egyptians and the Egyptians of to-day, 

 have been clever farmers ; they have known how 

 to get the best out of the land, and the land has 

 therefore produced food abundantly for them and 

 for their children. 



As we shall see later, it was in the land 

 round about the eastern end of the Mediterranean 

 that humanity learnt the greatest of its lessons in 

 plant-growing. It was that eastern end of the 

 great sea which was the great school of agricul- 

 ture, or one of the schools, we should perhaps 

 say, for the Far East was another great school. 

 There are very few of our common food -plants 

 which are not the result of the toil of unknown 

 generations of people in those two regions of the 

 world. They made our food-plants ; they learnt to 

 grow them, they learnt the principles that we have 

 to apply and extend. 



