iv BEGINNINGS OF AGEICULTURE 41 



us none, nor yet the country round the Cape of 

 Good Hope ; we owe nothing to New Zealand, to 

 South America south of the Plate river, nor to the 

 Arctic and Antarctic regions. All the men who 

 live in or near these regions to-day are dependent 

 for their food on the skill, the patience, and the 

 intelligence of the dead and gone folk who lived in 

 the three regions mentioned already. We should 

 think of that sometimes when we are inclined to 

 speak contemptuously of, for instance, the yellow- 

 skinned Chinese, who have done a large share of the 

 world's work. 



Why were the people in these three regions 

 wiser and more patient than their neighbours ? 

 How did they manage to do what the others could 

 not clo ? Well, we can hardly give the whole 

 answer, but there are a good many points that are 

 worth noticing. We can find partial explanations 

 in the climate and character of the country, in the 

 nature of the indigenous (that is, native) plants, 

 and in the nature of the people. For instance, we 

 cannot blame the Eskimo for not having any 

 cultivated plants, for their country produces very 

 few plants at all, and their climate will not grow 

 them. More than that, when the climate is very 

 cold people must have much animal food and a 

 large quantity of fat, so that food-plants are of less 

 use to them than to dwellers in warm countries. 



