CH. V 



THE SPKEADING OF FOOD-PLANTS 5S 



to their children, improved and made better by 

 their toil, so that these children in their turn may 

 have occasion to be grateful, and thus each genera- 

 tion may make life fuller and more secure for the- 

 next. 



The two examples just mentioned show, at least 

 generally, how plants were introduced from one 

 country to another in the olden days. For the 

 sake of the contrast let us look at the way they are 

 introduced now. It is perhaps a quicker way, but 

 yet it is not easy. 



In one of the early chapters we looked at the 

 way in which orchards and gardens and fields- 

 seemed to spring out of the barren earth in 

 Arizona, as soon as the fairy called Water touched 

 the surface. So charming was the picture that we 

 were seized with a desire to take boat and train at 

 once for Arizona, in order to find ourselves amid 

 that apparently miraculous plenty. But we found 

 that our ardour was a little checked by the fact 

 that the United States Government seemed disposed 

 to ask all sorts of questions before they would let 

 us begin. If your crops all fail, and your grapes 

 and peaches refuse to grow, have you enough to- 

 live upon until better times come ? Can you grow 

 oranges ? Do you know how to fertilise figs and 

 dates ? What will you do if the boll weevil 

 attacks your cotton ? 



